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

Let us see what Credit there is in Meekness.

1. There is in it the credit of a Victory. What a great Figure do the Names of high and mighty Conquerors make in the Records of Fame? How is their Conduct, their Valour, and their Success more than either cried up and celebrated? But if we will believe the Word of Truth, and pass a Judgment upon things according to the Rules of that, He that is slow to anger is better than ⟨p. 43⟩the Mighty, and he that ruleth his Spirit, than he that taketh a City, Pro. 16. 32. Behold a greater than Alexander or Caesar is here: The former of which some think lost more true Honour by yielding to his own ungoverned Anger, than he got by all his Conquests. No triumphant Chariot so easy, so safe, so truly glorious, as that in which the meek and quiet Soul rides over all the Provocations of an injurious World, with a gracious unconcernedness: No train so splendid, so noble, as that train of Comforts and Graces, which attend this Chariot. The Conquest of an unruly Passion is more honourable, than the Conquest of an unruly People, for it requires more true Conduct: It is easier to kill an Enemy without us, which may be done at a Blow, than to Chain up and govern an Enemy within us which requires a constant even steady Hand, and a long and regular Management. It was more the Honour of David to yield himself conquered by Abigail's Persuasions, than to have made himself a Conqueror over Nabal and all his House. A rational Victory must needs be allowed more honourable to a rational Creature than a brutal one. This is a cheap, safe and unbloody Conquest that doth no Body any harm, no Lives, no Treasures sacrificed to it, the Glory of these Triumphs, not stained as others use to be with Funerals: Every Battle of the Warrior (saith the Prophet, Isa. 9. 5.) is with confused noise, and Garments rolled in Blood, but this shall be with burning, even by the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts; as a Spirit of Judgment, and a Spirit of Burning. Nay, in meek and quiet suffering, we are more than Conquerors, through' Christ that loved us,