A77618:371
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.
Eighthly, If you would be silent and quiet under afflictions, then dwell much upon this, viz. that all your afflictions do but reach the worser, the baser, and the ignobler part of a Christian, viz. his body, his outward man.1 Though our outward man decay, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. As Aristarchus the Heathen, said, when he was beaten by the Tyrants, Beat on, it is not Aristarchus you beat, it is2 only his shell. Timothy had a very healthful soul in a crazy body, and Gaius had a very prosperous ⟨p. 363⟩soul in a weak distempered body. Epictetus and many of the more refined Heathens, have long since concluded, that the body was the organ (or vessel) the soul was the man and Merchandise. Now, all the troubles and afflictions that a Christian meets with, they do not reach his soul, they touch not his conscience, they make no breach upon his noble part; and therefore he hath cause to hold his peace, and to lay his hands upon his mouth; the soul is the breath of God, the beauty of man, the wonder of Angels, and the envy3 of Devils, it is a celestial plant, and of a divine off-spring; it is an immortal spirit; souls are of an Angelic nature, a man is an Angel clothed in clay; the soul is a greater miracle in man, than all the miracles wrought amongst men; the soul is a demi-semi-God dwelling in a house of clay. Now, it is not in the power of any outward troubles and afflictions that a Christian meets with, to ⟨p. 364⟩reach his soul; and therefore he may well sit mute under the smarting Rod.
Eighthly, If you would bee silent and quiet under afflictions, then dwell much upon this, viz. that all your afflictions do but reach the worser, the baser, and the ignobler part of a Christian, viz. his body, his outward man.1 Though our outward man decay, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. As Aristarchus the Heathen, said, when hee was beaten by the Tyrants, Beat on, it is not Aristarchus you beat, it is