A77618:102
The silent soul, with sovereign antidotes against the most miserable exigentsThe silent soul, with soveraign antidotes against the most miserable exigents
The silent soul, with sovereign antidotes against the most miserable exigents: or, A Christian with an olive-leaf in his mouth, when he is under the greatest afflictions, the sharpest and sorest trials and troubles, the saddest and darkest providences and changes, with answers to divers questions and objections that are of greatest importance, all tending to win and work souls to be still, quiet, calm and silent under all changes that have, or may pass upon them in this world, &c. / By Thomas Brooks preacher of the Word at Margarets New Fish-street London, and pastor of the Church of Christ meeting there.The silent soul, with soveraign antidotes against the most miserable exigents: or, A Christian with an olive-leaf in his mouth, when he is under the greatest afflictions, the sharpest and sorest trials and troubles, the saddest and darkest providences and changes, with answers to divers questions and objections that are of greatest importance, all tending to win and work souls to bee still, quiet, calm and silent under all changes that have, or may pass upon them in this world, &c. / By Thomas Brooks preacher of the Word at Margarets New Fish-street London, and pastor of the Church of Christ meeting there.
London: printed by R.I. for John Hancock, 1660
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Secondly, A holy, a prudent Silence, doth not shut out prayer for1 deliverance out of our afflictions; though the Psalmist lays his hand upon his mouth, in the Text, yet he prays for deliverance, vers. 10, Remove thy stroke away from me, and vers. 11, 12. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: For I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my Fathers were. O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more. James 5. 13. Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Times of affliction by Gods own injunction, are special times of supplication. Davids heart was more often out of tune, than his harp, but then he prays, and presently cries, Return to thy rest O ⟨p. 49⟩my soul. Jonah prays in the Whales belly, and Daniel prays when among the Lions, and Job prays when on the dunghill, and Jeremiah prays when in the dungeon; &c. Yea the Heathen Mariners, as stout as they were, when in a storm, they cry every man to his God, Jonah 1. 5, 6. to call upon God especially in times of distress and trouble, is a lesson that the very light and law of nature teaches. The Persian Messenger (though an Heathen) as Aeschylus observeth, saith thus, When the Grecian forces hotly pursued our host, and we must needs venture over the great water Strymon, frozen then, but beginning to thaw, when a hundred to one we had all died for it; With mine eyes I saw, saith he, many of those Gallants, whom I had heard before, so boldly maintain, There was no God, every one upon his knees, and devoutly praying that the Ice might hold till they got over. And shall blind nature do more than grace? If the time of affliction ⟨p. 50⟩be not a time of supplication, I know not what is.
Secondly, A holy, a prudent Silence, doth not shut out prayer for1