A43344:212
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
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.
2. We must receive Reproofs with Meekness. If we do that which deserves Rebuke, and we meet with those that are so just and kind to give it us, we must be quiet under it, not quarrelling with the Reprover, nor objecting against the Reproof, nor fretting that we are touched in a sore place, but submit to it, and laying our Souls under the Conviction of it.1 If Reproofs be Physic, it becomes us to be Patient. Let the Righteous smite me, it shall be a Kindness, and an excellent Oil, healing to the wounds of Sin, and making the face to shine; and let us never reckon that it breaks the Head, if it do but help to break the Heart, Psa. 141. 5. Meekness suffers the word of Admonition, and takes it patiently and thankfully, not only from the hand of God that sends it, but from the hand of our Friend that brings it. We must not be like the Reprobate Sodomites, Gen. 19. 9. or that pert Hebrew, Exod. 2. 14. that flew in the Face of their Reprovers, (tho' really they were the best Friends they had) with, Who made thee a Judge? but like David, who, when Abigail so prudently scotched the Wheels of his Passion, ⟨p. 119⟩not only blessed God that sent her, and blessed her Advice, but blessed her, 1 Sam. 25. 32, 33. and v. 35. not only hearkened to her Voice, but accepted her Person. Tho perhaps the Reprover supposeth the fault greater than really it was, and though the Reproof be not given with all the Prudence in the World, yet Meekness will teach us to accept it quietly, and to make the best use we can of it; nay, if indeed we be altogether innocent of that which we are reproved for, yet the Meekness of Wisdom would teach us to apply the Reproof to some other fault, which our own Consciences convict us of: We would not quarrel with a real intended Kindness, tho' not done with Ceremony, & tho' in some circumstances mistaken or misplaced.
2. We must receive Reproofs with Meekness. If we do that which deserves Rebuke, and we meet with those that are so just and kind to give it us, we must be quiet under it, not quarrelling with the Reprover, nor objecting against the Reproof, nor fretting that we are touch'd in a sore place, but submit to it, and laying our Souls under the Conviction of it.