A77618:382
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, If you would be silent under your afflictions, then hold fast this principle, that the Lord hath more high, more noble, and more blessed ends in the afflicting of you, than he hath in the afflicting of the men of the world. The stalk and the ear of corn fall upon the threshing floor, under one and the same flail, but the one is shattered in pieces, the other is preserved; from one and the same Olive, and from under one and the same press is crushed out both Oil and dregs, but the one is tunned up for use, the other thrown out as unserviceable; and by one and the same breath the fields are perfumed ⟨p. 369⟩with sweetness, and annoyed with unpleasant savours: so, though afflictions do befall good and bad alike, as the Scripture speaks, yet1 the Lord will effect more glorious ends by those afflictions that befall his people, than he will effect by those that befall wicked men; and therefore the Lord puts his people into the furnace, for their trial▪ but the wicked for their ruin; the one is bettered by affliction, the other is made worse; the one is made soft and tender by afflictions, the other is more hard and obdurate; the one is drawn nearer to God by afflictions, the other is driven further from God, &c.
Fourthly, If you would bee silent under your afflictions, then hold fast this principle, that the Lord hath more high, more noble, and more blessed ends in the afflicting of you, than hee hath in the afflicting of the men of the world. The stalk and the ear of corn fall upon the threshing flore, under one and the same flail, but the one is shattered in peeces, the other is preserved; from one and the same Olive, and from under one and the same press is crushed out both Oil and dreggs, but the one is tunn'd up for use, the other thrown out as unserviceable; and by one and the same breath the fields are perfumed ⟨p. 369⟩with sweetness, and annoyed with unpleasant savours: so, though afflictions do befall good and bad alike, as the Scripture speaks, yet1 the Lord will effect more glorious ends by those afflictions that befall his people, than hee will effect by those that befall wicked men; and therefore the Lord puts his people into the furnace, for their trial but the wicked for their ruine; the one is bettered by affliction, the other is made worse; the one is made soft and tender by afflictions, the other is more hard and obdurate; the one is drawn nearer to God by afflictions, the other is driven further from God, &c.