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

Good Examples help very much to illustrate and enforce good Rules, bringing them closer to particular Cases, and showing them to be practicable. Precedents are of great use in the Law. If we would be found walking in the same Spirit, and walking in the same Steps, with those that are gone before us to Glory, this is the Spirit we must be acted by, and these are the Steps we must walk in: This is the Way of good Men for wise Men to walk in. Let us go forth then by the Footsteps of the Flock, and set our selves to follow them, who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises. We are compassed about with a great Cloud of Witnesses, that will bear their Testimony to the Comfort of Meekness, and upon trial recommend it to us; but we shall single out only some few out of the Scripture.

Good Examples help very much to illustrate and enforce good Rules, bringing them closer to particular Cases, and shewing them to be practicable. Precedents are of great use in the Law. If we would be found walking in the same Spirit, and walking in the same Steps, with those that are gone before us to Glory, this is the Spirit we must be acted by, and these are the Steps we must walk in: This is the Way of good Men for wise Men to walk in. Let us go forth then by the Footsteps of the Flock, and set our selves to follow them, who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises. We are compassed about with a great Cloud of Witnesses, that will bear their Testimony to the Comfort of Meekness, and upon trial recommend it to us; but we shall single out only some few out of the Scripture.

1. Abraham was a Pattern of Meekness, and he was the Father of the Faithful. The Apostle here in the verse but one before the Text, proposeth Sarah for an Example to Women, particularly an ⟨p. 98⟩Example of Meekness in an inferior Relation; she obeyed Abraham, and (in token of the respect due to a Husband) she called him Lord. Now Abraham is a Pattern of the same Grace in a Superior. He that was famous for Faith, was famous for Meekness; for the more we have of Faith towards God, the more we shall have of Meekness towards all Men.—How meek was Abraham, when there happened a strife betwixt his Herdsmen and Lot's, which, had it proceeded, might have been of ill Consequence, for the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the Land, but it was seasonably taken up by the Prudence of Abraham,