A77618:353
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.
Fourthly, God delays and puts off his people many times, that he may make a fuller discovery of themselves to themselves. Few Christians see themselves, and understand themselves; by delays God discovers much of a mans sinful self to his religious self, much of his worser part to his better part, of his ignoble part, to his most noble part. When the fire is put under the pot, then the scum appears: so when God delays a poor soul, Oh! how doth the scum of pride, the scum of murmuring, the scum of quarrelling, the scum of distrust, the scum of impatience, the scum of despair,1 discover it self in the heart of a poor creature? I have read of a fool, who being left in a chamber, and the door locked, when he was asleep, after he awakes, and finds the door fast, and all the people gone, he cries out at the window, O my self! my self! O my self! So when God shuts the door upon his people, when he ⟨p. 339⟩delays them, and puts them off, Ah! what cause have they to cry out of themselves, to cry out of proud self, and worldly self, and2 carnal self, and foolish self, and froward self? &c. We are very apt, saith Seneca (utimur perspicillis magis quam speculis) to use spectacles to behold other mens faults, rather than▪ looking-glasses to behold our own; but now Gods delays are as a looking-glass, in which God gives his people to see their own faults. Oh! that baseness, that vileness, that wretchedness, that sink of filthiness, that gulf of wickedness that God by delays discovers to be in the hearts of men! But
Fourthly, God delaies and puts off his people many times, that hee may make a fuller discovery of themselves to themselves. Few Christians see themselves, and understand themselves; by delaies God discovers much of a mans sinfull self to his religious self, much of his worser part to his better part, of his ignoble part, to his most noble part. When the fire is put under the pot, then the scum appears: so when God delaies a poor soul, Oh! how doth the scum of pride, the scum of murmuring, the scum of quarrelling, the scum of distrust, the scum of impatience, the scum of despair,1