THE MUTE CHRISTIAN UNDER THE SMARTING ROD OF GOD (Thomas Brooks, 1659)

“Psalms 39.9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.

A gracious, a prudent silence, takes in a holy quietness and calmness of mind and spirit, under the afflicting hand of God.

A gracious silence shuts out all inward heats, murmurings, frettings, quarrelings, wranglings, and boilings of heart: Ps. lxii. 1, ‘Truly my soul waiteth upon God;’ that is, my soul is quiet or submissive to God; all murmurings and repinings, passions and turbulent affections, being allayed, tamed, and subdued. This is also clear in the instances of Aaron, Eli, and Job. They saw that it was a Father that put those bitter cups in their hands, and love that laid those heavy yokes about their necks; and this caused much quietness and calmness in their spirits.
Marius bit in pain when the chirurgeon cut off his leg. Some men, when God cuts off this mercy and that mercy from them, they bite in 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, Ps. xxxix. 3. But certainly a holy silence allays all tumults in the mind, and makes a man ‘in patience possess his own soul,’ which, next to his possession of God, is the sweetest possession in all the world, Luke xxi. 19. The law of silence is as well upon that man’s heart and mind, as it is upon his tongue, who is truly and divinely silent under the rebuking hand of God. A man is then graciously silent when all is quiet within and without, Isa. xxix. 13, Mat. xv. 8,9. Terpander, a harper and a poet, was one that, by the sweetness of his verse and music, could allay the tumultuous motions of men’s minds, as David, by his harp, did Saul’s. When God’s people are under the rod, He makes by his Spirit and word such sweet music in their souls as allays all tumultuous motions, passions, and perturbations, Ps. xciv. 17-19, Ps. cxix. 49, 50, so that they sit Noah-like, quiet and still; and in peace possess their own souls.”