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

1. The Adversaries of Religion speak against it because they do not know it. Sound Knowledge hath not a greater Enemy in the World than Ignorance. Our Lord Jesus was therefore despised and hated by the World, because the World knew him not, John 1. 10. If they had known the Dignity of his Person, the Excellency of his Doctrine, and the gracious Design and Purpose of his coming into the World, certainly they would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory, 1 Cor. 2. 8. They that did it,¹ did it through Ignorance, and knew not what they did. Thus they who say to the Almighty, ²Depart from us, could not say so if they did not at the same time studiously decline the knowledge of his ways. ³No Man will speak against Religion and the Power of it, that hath either seriously weighed the Proofs and Evidences of it, or impartially tried the Comfort and Benefit of it.⁴ If they knew this Gift, this inestimable Gift of God, instead of speaking against it, ⟨p. 23⟩they would covet it earnestly as the best Gift. He that looks at a distance upon Men Dancing, would think them to be mad: (It was Peter Martyr's Comparison, in a Sermon which had so good an influence upon the Conversion of the Marquess of Vico) But let him come nearer them, and observe the Regularity and Harmony of all their Motions and Postures, and he will not only admire their Order, but find in himself an inclination to join with them: So he that contents himself with a distant and transient view of the Practice of Piety will perhaps take up hard thoughts of it, but a better Acquaintance will rectify the Mistake. When the Spouse in the Canticles had given a Description of her Beloved to the Daughters of Jerusalem, the same who before had scornfully asked,⁵ What is thy Beloved more than another Beloved? Now as seriously enquire, Whither is thy Beloved gone, that we may seek him with thee? The People of God are called his Hidden Ones,