A discourse concerning meekness and quietness of spirit to which is added, A sermon…

Meekness is gainful and profitable.

1. As it is the Condition of the Promise: The Meek are therefore blessed, for they shall inherit the Earth. 'Tis quoted from Psal. 37. 11. and is almost the only express Promise of temporal ⟨p. 62⟩good things in all the new Testament.¹ Not that the Meek shall be put off with the Earth only, then they would not be truly blessed, but they shall have that as an Earnest of something more. Some read it, They shall inherit the Land; i. e. the Land of Canaan, which was not only a Type and Figure, but to them that believed, a Token and Pledge of the Heavenly Inheritance. So that, A double Canaan (as Dr. Hammond observes) is thought little enough for the meek Man.² The same Felicity, in a manner, attending him, which we believe of Adam, if he had not fallen, a Life in Paradise, and from thence a Transplantation to Heaven.— But besides this, Meekness is a branch of Godliness, which hath more than other Branches of it, the promise of the Life that now is, 1 Tim. 4. 8. They shall inherit the Earth; the sweetest and surest Tenure is that by Inheritance, which is founded in Sonship: That which comes by Descent to the Heir, the Law attributes to the Act of God, who hath a special Hand in providing for the Meek. They are his Children, and if Children, then Heirs. It is not always the largest Proportion of this World's Goods, that falls to the meek Man's share, but whether he hath more less, he hath it by the best Title; not by a Common, but a Covenant-Right: He holds in Capite, ³in Christ our Head, an honourable Tenure.

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