A43344:128
A discourse concerning meekness and quietness of spirit to which is added, A sermon…
A discourse concerning meekness and quietness of spirit to which is added, A sermon on Acts 28. 22, showing that the Christian religion is not a sect, and yet that it is every where spoken against / by Matthew Henry ...A discourse concerning meekness and quietness of spirit to which is added, A sermon on Acts 28. 22, shewing that the Christian religion is not a sect, and yet that it is every where spoken against / by Matthew Henry ...
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1699
A Discourse concerning MEEKNESS. › Chapter 2: The Excellency of Meekness and Quietness of Spirit.
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.
1. It makes us fit for any Duty. It puts the Soul in Frame, and keeps it so for all Religious Exercises. There was no noise of Axes and Hammers in the building of the Temple: Those are most fit for Temple-service that are most quiet and composed. The Work of God is best done, when it is done without noise. Meekness qualities and disposes us to hear and receive the Word: When Malice and Envy are laid aside, and we are like new-born Babes, for Innocency and Inoffensiveness, then we are most fit to receive the sincere Milk of the Word, and are most likely to grow thereby, 1 Pet. 2. 1, 2. Meekness prepares the Soil of the Heart, for the Seed of the Word, as the Husbandman opens and breaks the Clods of his Ground, and makes plain the face thereof, and then casts in the principal Wheat, and the appointed Barley, Isa. 28. 24, 25. Christs Ministers are Fishers of Men, but we seldom fish successfully in these troubled Waters. The Voice Eliphaz heard was ushered in with a profound silence, Job 4. 16. and in slumbrings upon the Bed, a quiet Place and Posture. God openeth the Ears of Men, and sealeth their Instructions, ⟨p. 69⟩Job 33. 15, 16. Prayer is another Duty which Meekness doth dispose us for the right and acceptable Performance of. We do not lift up pure Hands in Prayer, if they be not without Wrath, 1 Tim. 2. 8. Prayers made in Wrath are written in Gall, and can never be pleasing to, or prevailing with the God of Love and Peace. Our Rule is, First go and be reconciled to thy Brother, and then come and offer thy Gift, 1Mat. 5. 23, 24. And if we do not take this method, though we seek God in a due Ordinance we do not seek him in the due Order.
1. It makes us fit for any Duty. It puts the Soul in Frame, and keeps it so for all Religious Exercises. There was no noise of Axes and Hammers in the building of the Temple: Those are most fit for Temple-service that are most quiet and compos'd. The Work of God is best done, when it is done without noise. Meekness qualities and disposes us to hear and receive the Word: When Malice and Envy are laid aside, and we are like new-born Babes, for Innocency and Inoffensiveness, then we are most fit to receive the sincere Milk of the Word, and are most likely to grow thereby,