About the Author

Thomas Brooks (1608-80).  One of a number of Puritan nonconformist preachers who emerged from Emanuel College, Cambridge, where his fellow students, it appears, would have included John Milton and the famous trio of New England divines, Thomas Shepard, and John Cotton, and Thomas Hooker, the spiritual founders of Massachusetts.  Brooks’ life’s history is relatively obscure.  He was known as a humble man who shunned the public spotlight, but loved ministering to the saints.  He authored over a dozen books including Heaven on Earth, about the blessedness of the Christian experience, and The Secret Key to Heaven, an encouragement to private prayer.  He placed none of his educational degrees on his title pages, preferring instead merely “Preacher of the Gospel,” “Preacher of the Word,” or on one occasion, “Thomas Brooks, a weak and unworthy Teacher of the Gospel at Thomas Apostles, London.”  His preaching was apparently noteworthy enough to have earned him the opportunity to preach before Parliament in 1648, and most of his books were written in his later years.  His friend John Reeve described him  as a man of “a very sweet nature and temper,” “very great gravity,” “very large charity,” “wonderful patience,” and “a very strong faith in the promises of both worlds.”

An Encouragement to Prayer

from The Secret Key to Heaven

by Thomas Brooks

. CloseWindow