A77618:189
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.
Thirdly, Consider, That murmuring1 is a mother sin, it is the Mother of harlots, the Mother of all abominations, a sin that breeds many other sins, viz. disobedience, contempt, ingratitude, impatience, distrust, rebellion, cursing, carnality; yea it charges God with folly, yea with blasphemy;2 the language of a murmuring, a muttering soul, is this, Surely God might have done this sooner, and that wiser, and the other thing better, &c. As the River Nilus bringeth forth many Crocodiles, and the Scorpion many Serpents at one birth, so murmuring is a ⟨p. 150⟩sin that breeds and brings forth many sins at once: Murmuring is like the Monster Hydra, cut off one head, and many will rise up in its room. Oh! therefore bend all thy strength against this Mother sin; As the King of Syria said3 to his Captains, Fight neither with small nor great, but with the King of Israel: So say I, fight not so much against this sin or that, but fight against your murmuring, which is a Mother sin; make use of all your4 Christian armour, make use of all the ammunition of Heaven, to destroy the Mother, and in destroying of her, you will destroy the daughters. When Goliath was slain, the Philistines fled; when a General in an Army is cut off, the common soldiers are easily and quickly routed and destroyed: So, destroy but murmuring, and you will quickly destroy disobedience, ingratitude, impatience, distrust, &c. Oh! kill this Mother sin, that this may never kill thy soul. I have read of Sennacherib, that after ⟨p. 151⟩his Army was destroyed by an Angel, Isa. 37. and he returned home to his own Country, he enquired of one about him, what he thought the reason might be why God so favoured the Jews, he answered, that there was one Abraham their Father that was willing to sacrifice his Son to death at the command of God, and that ever since that time God favoured that people: well, said Sennacherib, if that be it, I have two Sons, and I will sacrifice them both to death, if that will procure their God to favour me; which when his two Sons heard, they (as the story goeth) slew their Father,