A77618:25
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, Read and apply; reading is but the drawing of the bow, application is the hitting of the white; the choicest truths will no further profit you, than they are applied by you; you were1 as good not to read, as not to apply what you read: No man attains to health by reading of Galen, or by knowing Hippocrates his Aphorisms, but by the practical application of them; all the reading in the world will never make for the health of your souls, except you apply ⟨image 12⟩what you read; the true reason why many read so much, and profit so little, is, because they do not apply and bring home what they read to their own souls. But
- 1The plaster will nor heal, if it be not applied.The plaister will nor heal, if it bee not applied.
Sixthly and lastly, Read and pray; he that makes not conscience of praying over what he reads, will find little1 sweetness or profit in his reading; no man makes such earnings of his reading, as he that prays ove• what he reads. Luther professeth, that he profited more in the knowledge of the Scriptures by prayer in a short space, than by study in a longer. A• John by weeping got the sealed book open: so certainly men would gain much more than they do, by reading good mens wo•ks, if they would but pray more over what they read. Ah Christians! pray before you read, and pray after you read, that all may be blest and sanctified to you; when you have done reading, usually close up thus,
Sixthly and lastly, Read and pray; hee that makes not conscience of praying over what hee reads, will finde little