A43344:142
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 3: The Application.
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.
AND now, First, Have we not reason to lament the want of the Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit, among those that profess Religion, and especially in our own Bosoms? If this be Christianity, the Lord help us! How little is there of the Thing, even among those that make great Pretensions to the Name? Surely, (as one said in another Case) Aut hoc non Evangelium, aut hi non Evangelici: Either this is not Gospel, or these are not Gospel-Professors. And, O how hare and uncomely doth Profession appear, for want of this adorning! When the Israelites had stripped themselves of their Ornaments to furnish up a Golden Calf, it is said, they were made naked to their shame, Exod. 32. 25. How naked are we (like Adam when he had sinned) for want of this Ornament, 'tis well if it were to the shame of true Repentance, for there's reason enough for it.
AND now, First, Have we not reason to lament the want of the Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit, among those that profess Religion, and especially in our own Bosoms? If this be Christianity, the Lord help us! How little is there of the Thing, even among those that make great Pretensions to the Name? Surely, (as one said in another Case) Aut hoc non Evangelium, aut hi non Evangelici: Either this is not Gospel, or these are not Gospel-Professors. And, O how hare and uncomly doth Profession appear, for want of this adorning! When the Israelities had stript themselves of their Ornaments to furnish up a Golden Calf, it is said, they were made naked to their shame, Exod. 32. 25. How naked are we (like Adam when he had sinn'd) for want of this Ornament, 'tis well if it were to the shame of true Repentance, for there's reason enough for it.
I am not teaching you to Judge and Censure others in this matter, there is but too much of that to be found among us; we are quicksighted enough to spy faults in others, the transports of whose Passions, we should interpret favourably. But we have all cause more or less to condemn our selves, and confess Guilt in this Matter. In many things we all offend, and perhaps in this, as much as in any, coming short of the Law of Meekness and Quietness.