Thomas Brooks emphasizes the importance of remaining silent and patient during afflictions, as this frustrates Satan's attempts to lead believers into despair and blasphemy. He illustrates this through the story of Job, whose steadfastness in suffering thwarted Satan's designs to accuse him before God. Brooks warns that Satan, the relentless accuser, seeks to tempt believers into sin and then use those sins against them, but silence in the face of trials serves as a powerful weapon against the enemy. By maintaining composure and trust in God, Christians can effectively counteract Satan's schemes and demonstrate their faith. Ultimately, Brooks encourages believers to recognize that true victory lies in their ability to remain silent and steadfast under God's hand.

Christians should be mute and silent under their afflictions, because hereby they shall cross and frustrate Satan's great design and expectation. In all the afflictions he brought upon Job, Satan's design was not so much to make Job a beggar—as it was to make him a blasphemer; it was not so much to make Job outwardly miserable—as it was to make Job inwardly miserable, by occasioning him to mutter and murmur against the righteous hand of God, that so he might have had some matter of accusation against him to the Lord. Satan is the unwearied accuser of the brethren. Rev. 12:10, "The accuser of the brethren is cast down, who accuses them before our God day and night." Satan is the great tempter and accuser between God and His children. He has a mint constantly going in hell, where, as an untiring mint-master, he is still coming and hammering out of accusations against the saints! First, he tempts and allures souls to sin—and then accuses them of those very sins he has tempted them to— so that he may disgrace them before God, and bring them, if it were possible, out of favor with God. And though he knows beforehand that God and His people are, by the bond of the covenant, and by the blood of the Redeemer—so closely united that they can never be severed—yet such is his rage and wrath, envy and malice, that he will endeavor that which he knows he shall never effect! Could he but have made Job froward or fretting under the rod, he would have quickly carried the tidings to heaven, and have been so bold as to have asked God whether this was a posture befitting such a person, of whom God Himself had given so glorious a character! Satan knows that there is more evil in the least sin— than there is in all the afflictions that can be inflicted upon a person; and if he could have but made a breach upon Job's patience, ah, how would he have insulted over God himself! But Job, by remaining mute and silent under all his trials, puts Satan to a blush, and spoils all his projects at once. The best way to outwit the devil, is to be silent under the hand of God. He who mutters is foiled by Satan—but he who is silent overcomes him; and to conquer a devil is more than to conquer a world!