A77618:361
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, Get an assurance that Christ is yours, and pardon of sin1 yours, and divine favour yours, and Heaven yours, and the sense of this will exceedingly quiet and silence the soul under the sorest and the sharpest trials a Christian can meet with in this world; he that is assured that God is his portion, will never mutter nor murmur under his greatest burdens; he that can groundedly say nothing shall separate me from the love of God in Christ, he will be able to ⟨p. 348⟩triumph in the midst of the greatest2 tribulations; he that with the Spouse can say, My Beloved is mine, and I am his, will bear up quietly and sweetly under the heaviest afflictions. In the time of the Marian 3Persecution, there was a gracious woman, who being convened before bloody Bonner (then Bishop4 of London) upon the trial of Religion, he threatened her that he would take away her husband from her; saith she, Christ is my husband; I will take away thy child, Christ, saith she, is better to me than ten Sons; I will strip thee, saith he, of all thy outward comforts, yea but Christ is mine, saith she, and you cannot strip me of him. Oh! the assurance that Christ was hers bore up her heart, and quieted her spirit under all. You may take away my life, (saith Basil) but you cannot take away my comfort, my head, but not my Crown, yea, quoth he, had I a thousand lives, I would lay them all down for my Saviours ⟨p. 349⟩sake, who hath done abundantly more for me. John Ardley professed to Bonner, when he told him of burning, and how ill he could endure it, that if he had as many lives, as he had hairs on his head, he would lose them all in the fire before he would lose his Christ, Assurance will keep a man from muttering and murmuring under the sorest afflictions. Henry and John (two Augustine Monks) being the first that were burnt in Germany, and Master Rogers the first that was burnt in Queen Mary's days, did all sing in the flames. A soul that lives in the assurance of divine favour, and in its title to glory, cannot but bear up patiently and quietly under the greatest sufferings that possibly can befall it in this world. That Scripture is worth its weight in gold. The Inhabitants of Zion shall not say,