1. To consider the Circumstances of that which we apprehend to be a Provocation, so as at no time to express our displeasure but upon due and mature deliberation. The Office of Meekness is to keep Reason upon the Throne in the Soul, as it ought to be, to preserve the Understanding clear and unclouded, the Judgment untainted and unbiased in the midst of the greatest Provocations, so as to be able to set every thing in its true Light, and to see it in its own Colour, and to determine accordingly, as also to keep silence in the Court, that the still small Voice, in which the Lord is (as he was with Elijah at Mount Horeb, 1 Kin, 19. 12, 13.) may not be drowned by the ⟨p. 16⟩noise of the Tumult of the Passions. A meek Man will never be angry at a Child, at a Servant, at a Friend, till he hath first seriously weighed the Cause in just and even Balances, while a steady and impartial Hand held the Scales, and a free and unprejudiced Thought had adjudged it necessary. It is said of our Lord Jesus, John 11. 33. [Greek or Hebrew], he troubled himself—which speaks it a considerate Act, and what he saw reason for. Then things go right in the Soul when no Resentments are admitted into the Affections, but what have first undergone the Scrutiny of the Understanding, and thence received their Pass. That Passion which cometh not in by this Door, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a Thief and a Robber, which we should stand upon our Guard against. In a time of War (and such a time it is in every sanctified Soul, in a strict War between Grace and Corruption) due care must be taken to examine all Passengers, especially those that come armed, whence they came, whither they go, who they are for, and what they would have? Thus should it be in the well-governed, well-disciplined Soul. Let Meekness stand Sentinel, and upon the advance of a Provocation, let us examine who it is we are about to be angry with,1 and for what? What are the merits of the Cause, wherein lay the Offence, what was the Nature and Tendency of it? What are likely to be the Consequences of our Resentments, and what harm will it be if we stifle them and let them go no further? Such as these are the Interrogatories which Meekness would put to the Soul, and in answer to them would abstract all that which Passion is apt to suggest, and hear Reason only, as it becomes rational Creatures to do.
1. To consider the Circumstances of that which we apprehend to be a Provocation, so as at no time to express our displeasure but upon due and mature deliberation. The Office of Meekness is to keep Reason upon the Throne in the Soul, as it ought to be, to preserve the Understanding clear and unclouded, the Judgment untainted and unbiassed in the midst of the greatest Provocations, so as to be able to set every thing in its true Light, and to see it in its own Colour, and to determine accordingly, as also to keep silence in the Court, that the still small Voice, in which the Lord is (as he was with Elijah at Mount Horeb, 1 Kin, 19. 12, 13.) may not be drown'd by the ⟨p. 16⟩noise of the Tumult of the Passions. A meek Man will never be angry at a Child, at a Servant, at a Friend, till he hath first seriously weigh'd the Cause in just and even Ballances, while a steddy and impartial Hand held the Scales, and a free and unprejudiced Thought had adjudg'd it necessary. It is said of our Lord Jesus, Iohn 11. 33. 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, he troubled himself—which speaks it a considerate Act, and what he saw reason for. Then things go right in the Soul when no Resentments are admitted into the Affections, but what have first undergone the Scrutiny of the Understanding, and thence received their Pass. That Passion which cometh not in by this Door, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a Thief and a Robber, which we should stand upon our Guard against. In a time of War (and such a time it is in every sanctified Soul, in a strict War between Grace and Corruption) due care must be taken to examine all Passengers, especially those that come arm'd, whence they came, whither they go, who they are for, and what they would have? Thus should it be in the well-govern'd, well-disciplin'd Soul. Let Meekness stand Centinel, and upon the advance of a Provocation, let us examine who it is we are about to be angry with,1 and for what? What are the merits of the Cause, wherein lay the Offence, what was the Nature and Tendency of it? What are likely to be the Consequences of our Resentments, and what harm will it be if we stifle them and let them go no further? Such as these are the Interrogatories which Meekness would put to the Soul, and in answer to them would abstract all that which Passion is apt to suggest, and hear Reason only, as it becomes rational Creatures to do.
- 1Expendantur verba, dicendum hoc, si dicen dumb adversum hunc, tempus sermonis sit hujus, &c. Ambr. de Offic. l. 1. c. 9Expendantur verba, dicendum hoc, si dicen dum adversum hunc, tempus sermonis sit hujus, &c. Ambr. de Offic. l. 1. c. 9
