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

1. Meekness hath a good influence upon our Health. If envy be the rottenness of the Bones, Pro. 14. 30. Meekness is the Preservation of them. As the indulging of inordinate Appetites towards those things that are pleasing to the Flesh, so the ⟨p. 64⟩indulging of inordinate Passions against those things that are displeasing, do in the effect prejudice and injure the very Body which they contend so much for. The Excesses and Exorbitances of Anger, stir up those peccant Humours in the Body, which kindle and increase wasting and killing Diseases, but Meekness governs these Humours, and so contributes very much to the good Temper and Constitution of the Body. When Ahab was sick for Naboth's Vineyard, Meekness would soon have cured him. Moses, the meekest of Men, not only lived to be old, but was then free from the Infirmities of Age; His Eye was not dim, nor his Natural Force abated, Deut. 34. 7. which may be very much imputed to his Meekness, as a means. The days of old Age would not be such evil Days, if old People did not, by their own frowardness and unquietness, make them worse than otherwise they would be. Ungoverned Anger inflames the Natural Heat, and so begets acute Diseases, drys up the Radical Moisture, and so hastens Chronic Decays. The Body is called, the Sheath or Scabbard of the Soul, Dan. 7. 15. Marg. How often doth an envious fretful Soul, like a Sharp Knife, cut its own Sheath, and, as they say of the Vipers Brood, eat its own way out: All which Meekness happily prevents.

1. Meekness hath a good influence upon our Health. If envy be the rottenness of the Bones, Pro. 14. 30. Meekness is the Preservation of them. As the indulging of inordinate Appetites towards those things that are pleasing to the Flesh, so the ⟨p. 64⟩indulging of inordinate Passions against those things that are displeasing, do in the effect prejudice and injure the very Body which they contend so much for. The Excesses and Exorbitances of Anger, stir up those peccant Humors in the Body, which kindle and increase wasting and killing Diseases, but Meekness governs these Humors, and so contributes very much to the good Temper and Constitution of the Body. When Ahab was sick for Naboth's Vineyard, Meekness would soon have cured him. Moses, the meekest of Men, not only liv'd to be old, but was then free from the Infirmities of Age; His Eye was not dim, nor his Natural Force abated,