By Thomas Brooks.
Paradise Opened.
Or, the Secrets, Mysteries, and Rarities of Divine Love, of Infinite Wisdom, and of Wonderful Counsel.
By Thomas Brooks.
Taken from the Epistle Dedicatory:
The points that are handled in this following treatise, and in the first part, are of as
high, choice, necessary, noble, useful, and comfortable a nature, as any that can be treated by mortal man.
The four things which God minds most and loves most are:
(1.) His honor.
(2.) His worship.
(3.) His people.
(4.) His truth.
Surely their souls must needs be of a very sad state, who can read the great truths that are here opened and applied, and not
(1.) dearly love them,
(2.) highly prize them,
(3.) cordially bless God for them,
(4.) seriously ponder and meditate upon them,
(5.) and not frequently and diligently study them, and make a gracious and daily improvement of them.
The covenant of grace, and the covenant of redemption, are a rich armory, out of
which you may furnish yourselves with all sorts of spiritual weapons, where with you may encounter Satan’s temptations, wiles, devices, methods, depths, stratagems.
Nothing of Satan’s can stand before the covenant of grace and the covenant of redemption, when well understood and well applied. In the covenant of grace and the covenant of redemption that is passed between God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, you will find many rich and rare cordials, which have a strong tendency to preserve all gracious souls from desponding and fainting:
(1.) in times of affliction;
(2.) in times of temptation;
(3.) in times of desertion;
(4.) in times of suffering for Christ’s sake and the gospel’s sake;
(5.) in times of opposition;
(6.) and at the time of death and dissolution.
There are no comforts nor cordials which can reach the souls of Christians in their deep distresses, but such as flow from these two covenants. The more it concerns all such Christians to study these two covenants, and to be well acquainted with them, that so they may the more readily have recourse to such cordials as their present estate and condition calls for.
In these two covenants you will find much matter which has a strong tendency:
(1.) to inflame your love to God and Christ, and all in the covenant of grace;
(2.) to strengthen your faith;
(3.) to raise your hopes;
(4.) to cheer your souls;
(5.) to quiet and satisfy your consciences;
(6.) to engage you to a close and holy walking with God;
(7.) to provoke you to triumph in free grace, and in the Lord Jesus Christ;
(8.) to sit loose from this world.
The riches and treasures that are wrapped up in both these covenants are so great, so sure, so durable, and so suitable to all believers—as maywell deaden their hearts to all the riches and glories of this lower world, Rev. 12:1.
In these two covenants every sincere Christian will find:
(1.) a special salve for every spiritual sore;
(2.) a special remedy against every spiritual malady;
(3.) a special plaster against every spiritual wound;
(4.) a spiritual storehouse to supply all their spiritual needs;
(5.) a spiritual shelter under every spiritual storm. (6.) food to nourish you;
(7.) a staff to support you;
(8.) a guide to lead you;
(9.) a fire to warm you;
(10.) springs of life to cheer and refresh you.
In this covenant of grace and the covenant of redemption, you may clearly see the wisdom, counsel, love, and transactions between the Father and the Son sparklingand shining; there being nothing under heaven which contributes more to the peace, comfort, assurance, settlement, and satisfaction of sincere Christians, than such a sight.
The main reason why so many gracious souls are so full of fears, doubts, darkness, and disputes about their internal and eternal estates, is because they have no more clear and full understanding of these two covenants; and if such Christians would but more seriously buckle down to the study of those two covenants, as they are opened and applied in the following treatise, their fears and doubts, etc., would quickly vanish.
They would have their triumphant songs; their mourning would soon be turned into rejoicing; and their complaints into hallelujahs. Neither do I know anything in all this world that would contribute more to seriousness, spiritualness, heavenliness, humbleness, holiness, and fruitfulness, than a right understanding of these two covenants, and a divine improvement of them.