A77618:121
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.
Reas. 2. Gracious souls should be mute and silent under their greatest afflictions, and sharpest trials, that they may difference and distinguish themselves from the men of the world, who usually fret and fling, mutter and murmur, curse and swagger when they are under the afflicting hand of God. Isa. 8. 21, 22. And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry; and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their King, and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth▪ and behold, trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness. Ah how fretful and froward, how disturbed and distracted, how mad and forlorn are these poor wretches under the rebukes of God! they look upward and downward, this ⟨p. 71⟩way and that way, on this side and on that, and finding no help, no succour, no support, no deliverance, like Bedlams, yea like incarnate Devils, they fall upon cursing of God and their King. Isa. 59. 11. We roar all like Bears, and mourn sore like Doves: we look for judgement, but there is none; for 1salvation, but it is far off from us. They express their inward vexation and indignation by roaring like Bears▪ when Bears are robbed of their whelps, or taken in a pit, O how dreadfully will they roar, rage, tear and tumble! So when wicked persons are fallen into the pit of affliction, O how will they roar, rage, tear, and cry out, not of their sins, but of their punishments: As Cain, my punishment is greater than I am able to bear. Isa. 51. 20. Thy Sons have fainted, they lye at the head of all the streets, as a wild Bull in a net; they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God. When the huntsman hath taken the wild Bull in ⟨p. 72⟩his toil, and so entangled him, that he is not able to wind himself out: Oh how fierce and furious will he be! how will he spend himself in struggling and striving to get out! Such wild Bulls are wicked men. when they are taken in the net of affliction.