A77618:192
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.
Fifthly, Consider, That murmuring is the Devils Image, sin, and punishment; Satan is still a murmuring▪ •hee murmurs at every mercy that God bestows, at every dram of grace he gives; he murmurs at every sin he pardons, and at every soul he• saves; a soul cannot have a good look ⟨p. 154⟩from Heaven, nor hear a good word from Heaven, nor receive a Love-letter from Heaven, but Satan murmurs at it; he murmurs and mutters at every act of pitying grace, and at every act of preventing grace, and at every act of supporting grace, and at every act of strengthening grace, and at every act of comforting grace that God exercises towards poor souls; he murmurs at every sip, at every drop, at every crumb of mercy that God bestows▪ Cyprian, Aquinas and others, conceive, that the cause of Satan's banishment from Heaven, was his grieving and murmuring at the dignity of man whom he beheld made after Gods own Image, insomuch that1 he would relinquish his own glory,2 to devest so noble a Creature of perfection, and rather be in Hell himself, than see Adam placed in Paradise. But certainly, after his fall, murmuring and envy at mans innocency and felicity, put him upon attempting to plunge ⟨p. 155⟩man into the bottomless gulf of sin and misery; he knowing himself to be damned, and lost for ever, would needs try all ways how to make happy man eternally unhappy. Mr. Howell tells it as a strange thing, that a Serpent was found in the heart of an Englishman when he was dead; But alas! this old Serpent was by sad experience found to have too much power in the heart of Adam whilst alive, and whilst in the height of all his glory and excellency; murmuring is the first-born of the Devil, and nothing renders a man more like to him than murmuring. Constantine's Sons did not more resemble their Father, nor Aristotle's scholars their Master, nor Alexander's Soldiers their General, than murmurers do resemble Satan. And as murmuring i• Satan's sin, so it is his punishment: God hath given him up to a murmuring spirit, nothing pleases him, all things go against him, he is perpetually a muttering and