Thomas Brooks (1608 - 1680) was a Puritan preacher and an extraordinary theologian, much like John Owen, and who, like his fellows, was ejected by the Act of Uniformity in 1662. He is the author of many works, and is quoted by a stream of those who came after him.

For example, Charles Spurgeon told his students - "Thomas Brooks is a signal instance of the wise and wealthy use of holy fancy... He hath dust of gold; for even in the margins of his books there are sentences of exceeding preciousness, and hints at classic stories. His style is clear and full; he never so exceeds in illustration as to lose sight of his doctrine. His floods of metaphor never drown his meaning, but float it upon their surface. If you have never read his works I almost envy you the joy of entering for the first time upon his Unsearchable Riches, trying his Precious Remedies, tasting his Apples of Gold, communing with his Mute Christian, and enjoying his other masterly writings."

The Works Of Thomas Brooks is available from The Banner Of Truth Trust.

"Communion with God, that is the life of your graces, the sweetener of all ordinances, providences, and mercies, the strengthener of your hearts and hands, the soul of your comforts, and the crown of your souls. Nothing like this to fence you against temptations, to sweeten all afflictions, and to make you own God, and stand for God, and cleave to God, in the face of all troubles and oppositions. A man high in communion with God, is a man too big for temptations to conquer, or troubles to bring under. Communion with God, it makes the bitter things sweet, and massive things light. Souls that have no communion, or but little communion, with God, they are usually as soon conquered as tempted, as soon vanquished as assaulted." The Hypocrite Detected, Epistle Dedicatory

"Of all sins, the sin of hypocrisy is the most defiling sin." The Hypocrite Detected

"Of all sorts of sinners God will be most severe in his judgments against hypocrites... Hypocrites are the proper objects of God's wrath, and such as he will most severely punish." The Hypocrite Detected

"One hardened and seared hypocrite is more advantage to carry out Satan's design, than a thousand loose profane persons. A hypocrite is Satan's firstborn; he is Satan's darling; he leans upon the devil's breast, as John did upon Christ's." The Hypocrite Detected

"Hypocrites are false to the marriage bed; and therefore God is so severe against them. They pretend to love Christ, and yet they give up their hearts to other lovers besides Christ. You know in law nothing gives a man that advantage to put away his wife as falseness to the marriage bed; and Christ will take that advantage to cast off hypocrites for ever." The Hypocrite Detected

"A sincere heart loves to do much for Christ, and not to be seen by any but Christ." The Hypocrite Detected

"Hypocrites trade not with God upon the credit of Christ's love, blood, righteousness, and intercession, but upon the credit of their own prayers, tears, desires, and endeavours." The Hypocrite Detected

"God does now expect that all his people should be taken up with those things that have most of God, and most of Christ, and most of heaven in them, and for these his people should be most magnanimous. Your feet should be where other men's heads are." The Hypocrite Detected

"I beseech you seriously consider that great sins after great mercies will cloud the face of God, and make the greatest wounds in conscience, and imbitter present mercies, and prevent future mercies, and cloud your evidences, and weaken your graces, and raise your fears, and heighten your enemies' hopes, and strengthen their hands; and therefore take heed of great sins after great mercies." The Hypocrite Detected

"Time is a jewel more worth than a world. Time is not yours to dispose of as you please; it is a glorious talent that men must be accountable for as well as any other talent... Of all talents, time is the hardest well to improve... Ah, beloved, have not you need to improve your time, who have much work to do in a short time: your souls to save, a God to honour, a Christ to exalt, a hell to escape, a race to run, a crown to win, temptations to withstand, corruptions to conquer, afflictions to bear, mercies to improve, and your generation to serve." The Hypocrite Detected

"It is high time to set light by all earthly glory, when God hath taken counsel to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth." The Hypocrite Detected

"In conquering of those enemies that be within, you make a conquest over the devil and hell itself... And as this is the most noble conquest, so it is the most necessary conquest. You must be the death of your sins, or they will be the death of your souls. Sin is a viper, that does always kill where it is not killed." The Hypocrite Detected

"Whatsoever we scatter to the poor, we gather for ourselves. Not getting, but giving, is the way to wealth. The poor man's hand is Christ's treasury, Christ's bank. Oh let not Christ's hand and Christ's treasury be empty! and yet be careful that what you cast into Christ's treasury be got in Christ's wages." The Hypocrite Detected

"To read much and practise nothing, is to hunt much and catch nothing." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"The crown becomes no head but Christ's. Let him who is our all in all have the honour and the glory of all, and I have my end." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"All the sighing, mourning, sobbing, and complaining in the world, doth 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. This is the greatest demonstration of humility that can be shewn by man." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"An humble soul looks upon Christ's righteousness as his only crown." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"An humble soul sees that all his stock is in the hands of Christ. His stock of graces, his stock of comforts, his stock of experiences are in the hands of Jesus Christ, who is the great Lord-keeper of all a believer's graces, and of all his comforts... Christ dwells in that heart most eminently that hath emptied itself of itself. Christ is the humble man's manna, upon which he lives, and by which he thrives." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"An humble soul looks upon all the things of God as consecrated things. Every truth of God is a consecrated truth; it is consecrated to holy use, and this causes the soul highly to prize it." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"Verily heaven is for that man, and that man is for heaven, that sets up for his mark the perfection of holiness." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"I had rather, says the humble soul, be a poor man and a rich Christian, than a rich man and a poor Christian." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"Little sins have put several to their wits' ends, when they have been set home upon their consciences." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"A proud heart counts great sins small, and small sins no sins, and so disarms conscience for a time of its whipping and wounding power; but at death, or in hell, conscience will take up an iron rod, with which it will lash the sinner for ever; and then, though too late, the sinner shall acknowledge his little sins to be very great, and his great sins to be exceeding grievous and odious." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"An humble soul looks through secondary causes, and sees the hand of God, and then lays his own hand upon his mouth." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"The humble soul knows that God out of Christ is incommunicable, that God out of Christ is incomprehensible, that God out of Christ is very terrible, and that God out of Christ is inaccessible; and therefore he still brings Christ with him, and presents all his requests in his name, and so prevails." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"Proud souls deal with God upon the credit of their own worthiness, righteousness, services, prayers, tears, fastings, as the proud Pharisees." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"An humble soul will bless God, and be thankful to God, as well under misery as under mercy; as well when God frowns as when he smiles; as well when God takes as when he gives; as well under crosses and losses as under blessings and mercies." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"An humble soul is quick-sighted: he sees the rod in Father's hand; he sees honey upon the top of every twig, and so can bless God; he sees sugar at the bottom of the bitterest cup that God doth put into his hand; he knows that God's house of correction is a school of instruction; and so he can sit down and bless when the rod is upon his back. An humble soul knows that the design of God in all is his instruction, his reformation, and his salvation." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"Afflictions to humble souls are the Lord's plough, the Lord's harrow, the Lord's flail, the Lord's drawing plaster, the Lord's pruning knife, the Lord's potion, the Lord's soap; and therefore they can sit down and bless the Lord, and kiss the rod." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"An humble soul knows, that to bless God in prosperity is the way to increase it; and to bless God in adversity is the way to remove it." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"As Hagar would dwell with Sarah till she beat her out of doors, so will sin dwell with grace till death beat it out of doors." The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

"Guilt or grief is all that gracious souls get by communion with vain souls." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"He is but a titular Christian that hath not personal experience of Satan's stratagems, his set and composed machinations, his artificially moulded methods, his plots, darts, depths, whereby he outwitted our first parents, and fits us a pennyworth still, as he sees reason." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"So doth Satan more hurt in his sheep's skin than by roaring like a lion." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"You call your opinions depths, and so they are, but they are such depths as Satan hath brought out of hell. They are the whisperings and hissings of that serpent, not the inspirations of God." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Satan hath snares for the wise and snares for the simple; snares for hypocrites and snares for the upright; snares for generous souls, and snares for timorous souls; snares for the rich, and snares for the poor; snares for the aged, and snares for youth." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Adversity hath slain her thousand, but prosperity her ten thousand." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Sin is a plague, yea, the greatest and most infectious plague in the world; and yet, ah! how few are there that tremble at it, that keep at a distance from it!" Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"As soon as one sin had seized upon Adam's heart, all sin entered into his soul and overspread it." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Ah, how doth the father's sin infect the child, the husband's infect the wife, the master's the servant! The sin that is in one man's heart is able to infect a whole world, it is of such a spreading and infectious nature." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Many eat that on earth that they digest in hell. Sin's murdering morsels will deceive those that devour them." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"If there were the least real delight in sin, there could be no perfect hell, where men shall most perfectly be tormented with their sin." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"A man bewitched with sin had rather lose God, Christ, heaven, and his own soul than part with his sin. Oh, therefore, for ever take heed of playing or nibbling at Satan's golden baits." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"The more sin is painted forth under the colour of virtue, the more dangerous it is to the souls of men." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Till we have sinned, Satan is a parasite; when we have sinned, he is a tyrant." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"That Christ should come from the eternal bosom of his Father to a region of sorrow and death; that God should be manifested in the flesh, the Creator made a creature; that he that was clothed with glory should be wrapped with rags of flesh; he that filled heaven and earth with his glory should be cradled in a manger; that the power of God should fly from weak man, the God of Israel into Egypt; that the God of the law should be subject to the law, the God of the circumcision circumcised, the God that made the heavens working at Joseph's homely trade; that he that binds the devils in chains should be tempted; that he, whose is the world, and the fulness thereof, should hunger and thirst; that the God of strength should be weary, the Judge of all flesh condemned, the God of life put to death; that he that is one with his Father should cry out of misery, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?; that he that had the keys of hell and death at his girdle should lie imprisoned in the sepulchre of another, having in his lifetime nowhere to lay he head, nor after death to lay his body; that that head before which the angels do cast down their crowns, should be crowned with thorns, and those eyes, purer than the sun, put out by the darkness of death; those ears, which hear nothing but hallelujahs of saints and angels, to hear the blasphemies of the multitude; that face that was fairer than the sons of men, to be spit on by those beastly wretched Jews; that mouth and tongue, that spake as never man spake, accused for blasphemy; those hands, that freely swayed the sceptre of heaven, nailed to the cross; those feet, like unto fine brass, nailed to the cross for man's sins; each sense annoyed; his feeling or touching, with a spear and nails; his smell, with stinking flavour, being crucified about Golgotha, the place of skulls; his taste, with vinegar and gall; his hearing, with reproaches, and sight of his mother and disciples bemoaning him; his soul, comfortless and forsaken; and all this for those very sins that Satan paints and puts fine colours upon! Oh! how should the consideration of this stir up the soul against it, and work the soul to fly from it, and to use all holy means whereby sin may be subdued and destroyed!" Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"So that when we consider that sin hath slain our Lord Jesus, ah, how should it provoke our hearts to be revenged on sin, that hath murdered the Lord of glory, and hath done that mischief that all the devils in hell could never have done? It was a good counsel one gave -- Never let go out of your minds the thoughts of a crucified Christ." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Those sins which we are apt to account small, have brought upon men the greatest wrath of God, as the eating of an apple, gathering a few sticks on the Sabbath day, and touching of the ark." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"The giving way to a less sin makes way for the committing of a greater... Sin is of an encouraging nature; it creeps on the soul by degrees, step by step, till it hath the soul to the very height of sin." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Ah! how many in these days have fallen, first to have low thoughts of Scripture and ordinances, and then to slight Scripture and ordinances, and then to make a nose of wax of Scripture and ordinances, and then to cast off Scripture and ordinances, and then at last to advance and lift up themselves, and their Christ-dishonouring and soul-damning opinions, above Scripture and ordinances." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"The debates of the soul are quick, and soon ended, and that may be done in a moment that may undo a man for ever." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Dives would not give a crumb, therefore he would not receive a drop." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"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." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"It is the greatest unkindness that can be shewed to God, Christ, and the Spirit, for a soul to put God upon complaining, Christ upon bleeding, and the Spirit upon grieving, by yielding to little sins. Therefore, when Satan says it is but a little one, do thou answer, that often times there is the greatest unkindness shewed to God's glorious majesty, in the acting of the least folly, and therefore thou wilt not displease thy best and greatest friend, by yielding to the his greatest enemy." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"There is great danger, yea, many times most danger, in the smallest sins... 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 undiscernibly in the soul, till they come to be so strong, as to trample upon the soul and to cut the throat of the soul." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"It was a vexation to king Lyaimachus, that his staying to drink one small draught of water lost him his kingdom; and so it will eternally vex some souls at last that for one little sin, compared with great transgressions, they have lost God, heaven, and their souls for ever." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"A little sin, without a great deal of mercy, will damn a man." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"We must choose rather  to suffer the worst of torments that men and devils can invent and inflict, than to commit the least sin, whereby God should be dishonoured, our conscience wounded, religion reproached, and our own souls endangered." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Many heathens would rather die than cozen or cheat one another, so faithful were they one to another. Will not these rise in judgment against many professors in that day, who make nothing of over-reaching one another?" Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"The least sin will press and sink the stoutest sinner as low as hell, when God shall open the eyes of a sinner, and make him see the horrid filthiness and abominable vileness that is in sin." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"There is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction; and this appears as clear as the sun, by the severe dealing of God the Father with his beloved Son, who let all the vials of his fiercest wrath upon him, and that for the least sin as well as for the greatest... Oh! how should this make us tremble, as much at the least spark of lust as at hell itself; considering that God the Father would not spare his bosom Son, no, not for the least sin, but would make him drink the dregs of his wrath!" Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"In a strict sense, there is no sin little, because no little God to sin against." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Many can sin with David and Peter, that cannot repent with David and Peter, and so must perish for ever." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"If sin and thy soul do not part, Christ and thy soul can never meet." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Remember, O souls! that the day is at hand when self-flatterers will be found self-deceivers, yea, self-murderers." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"God doth not, nor never will, disinherit his people for their sins, yet he hath severely punished his people for their sins... Though God will not utterly take from them [his elect] his loving-kindness, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail, nor break his covenant, nor alter the thing that is gone out of his mouth, yet will he visit their transgression with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes. The Scripture abounds with instances of this kind. This is so known a truth among all that know anything of truth, that to cite more scriptures to prove it would be to light a candle to see the sun at noon." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"God is most angry when he shews no anger." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"It never entered into the heart of God to record his children's sins, that others might be encouraged to sin, but that others might look to their standings, and to hang the faster upon the skirts of Christ, and avoid all occasions and temptations that may occasion the soul to fall, as others have fallen, when they have been left by Christ. The Lord hath made their sins as landmarks, to warn his people to take heed how they come near those sands and rocks, those snares and baits, that have been fatal to the choicest treasures, to wit, the joy, peace, comfort, and glorious enjoyments of the bravest spirits and noblest souls that ever sailed through the ocean of this sinful troublesome world; as you may see in David, Job, Peter, &c. There is nothing in the world that can so notoriously cross the grand end of God's recording of the sins of his saints, than for from thence to take encouragement to sin; and wherever you find such a soul, you may write him Christless, graceless, a soul cast off by God, a soul that Satan hath by the hand, and the eternal God knows whither he will lead him." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Woe, woe to him at whose sins God doth wink. When God lets the way to hell be a smooth and pleasant way, that is hell on this side hell, and a dreadful sign of God's indignation against a man; a token of his rejection, and that God doth not intend good unto him." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"God is as just as he is merciful." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Sins against mercy will bring the greatest and sorest judgments upon men's heads and hearts. Mercy is Alpha, Justice is Omega... When mercy is despised, then justice takes the throne." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"God is slow to anger, but he recompenseth his slowness with grievousness of punishment. If we abuse mercy to serve our lust, then, in Salvian's phrase, God will rain hell out of heaven, rather than not visit for such sins." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Oh! therefore, whenever Satan shall present God to the soul as one made up all of mercy, that he may draw thee to do wickedly, say unto him, that sins against mercy will bring upon the soul the greatest misery." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Those that were once glorious on earth, and are now triumphing in heaven, did look upon the mercy of God as the most powerful argument to preserve them from sin, and to fence their souls against sin, and not as an encouragement to sin." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"There is nothing in the world that renders a man more unlike to a saint, and more like to Satan, than to argue from mercy to sinful liberty; from divine goodness to licentiousness. This is the devil's logic, and in whomsoever you find it, you may write, This soul is lost." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"Repentance is a mighty work, a difficult work, a work that is above our power. There is no power below that power that raised Christ from the dead, and that made the world, that can break the heart of a sinner. Thou art as well able to melt adamant, as to melt thine own heart; to turn a flint into flesh, as to turn thine own heart to the Lord; to raise the dead and to make a world, as to repent. Repentance is a flower that grows not in nature's garden... Repentance is a gift that comes down from above." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

"It is not in the power of any mortal to repent at pleasure. Some ignorant deluded souls vainly conceit that these five words -- Lord! have mercy upon me -- are efficacious to send them to heaven; but as many are undone by buying a counterfeit jewel, so many are in hell by mistake of their repentance." Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices