A77618:64
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, A gracious, a prudent Silence, takes in a holy quietness1 and calmness of mind and spirit under the afflicting hand of God: A gracious Silence shuts out all inward heats, murmurings, frettings, quarrellings▪ wranglings, and boilings of heart, Psal. 62. 1. Truly my soul keepeth silence unto God, or is silent or still; that is, my soul is quiet and submissive to ⟨p. 23⟩God, all murmurings and repinings, passions and turbulent affections, being allayed, tamed and subdued. This also is clear in the Text, and in the former instances of Aaron, Ely, and Job, they saw that it was a Father that put those bitter cups into their hands, and love, that laid those heavy crosses upon their shoulders, and grace, that put those yokes about their necks; and this caused much quietness and calmness in their spirits. Marius bit in his pain, when the Chirurgeon cut off his leg. Some men, when God cuts off this mercy, and that mercy from them, they bite in their pain, they hide and conceal their grief and trouble; but could you but look into their hearts, you would find all in an uproar, all out of order, all in a flame; and however they may seem to be cold without, yet they are all in a hot burning fever within: Such a feverish fit David was once in, Psal. 39. 3. But certainly a holy Silence allays all tumults in the ⟨p. 24⟩mind, and makes a man in patience2 to possess his own soul, which next to his possession of God, is the choicest and sweetest possession in all the world. The Law of Silence is as well upon that mans heart and mind, as it is upon his tongue, who is truly and divinely silent under the rebuking hand of God. As tongue-service abstracted3 from heart service, is no service in the account of God; so tongue-silence abstracted from heart-silence, is no silence in the esteem of God. A man is then graciously silent, when all is quiet within and without.