room as may be; premifing only this, that in both thefe cafes the fame confiderations will be a fupport and comfort to us.

1. THEN let the fuffering be what it will, we are to confider God as infinitely wife and good, and ordering all things for the beft. The fufferings of this world are many times not fo much a punishment, as a charitable design to us, to draw us off * from fin, and bring us to repentance, † to humble us, to wean us from the world, to try our faith and truft || in God, to improve us in all virtue and obedience to him, and to forward our own real advantage at length, though we do not fee at present into the fecret fprings of Providence, by which it may be brought about; as in the cafe of. Jofeph, and many other inftances, * for all things work together for good, to them that love God; and therefore though the religious mourner tfows in tears, 'tis with a confidence that he fhall reap in joy. But,

2. SUPPOSE it be by way of punishment we fuffer, it is to be remember'd, by way of comfort, that this correction is to make us wifer and better, and to prevent the eternal punishment in hell. And 'tis to be confidered alfo, that whatsoever we may fuffer here, 'tis lefs than our iniquities deferve. We may be thankful that our lives are left us, thankful for any fuffering on this fide death and eternity. Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his fins?

3. LASTLY, The religious mourner ought to reftrain his forrow, by the hope and expectation of a future ftate. That one reflection of St.

Paul's, that the fufferings of this prefent life are not worthy to be compared with the glory which fhall be revealed in us, is capable of working in a confiderate mind, more joy and fatisfaction, than all the preffures of the world can trouble and torment us. To a man who ftedfaftly believes the immortality of his foul, and the eternal glory of the world to come, no other argument need be urged for comfort in the midst of all his afflictions. In the revelation of this, and the af furance of it upon fuch conditions as the Gospel tenders it, Chrift has done more to comfort us, than all the malice of earth and hell can do to grieve us. With these words therefore, viz. These promifes, this revelation, comfort your felves and one another; and state but the cafe aright betwixt eternity and threefcore years, or fay it be fomewhat more, and you will find in all reafon that the future world fhould weigh down the present. And thus we have done with the fecond of the Beatitudes, Bleffed are they that mourn, for they fhall be comforted.

* Rom. viii. 18.

36

CHA P. III.

Of MEEKNES S,

MATTH. V. 5.

Bleffed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

I

N difcourfing upon this text, the most eafy and natural method will be that which we have taken in the two former chapters,

FIRST, To defcribe the virtue, and confequently the perfons blessed; and,

SECONDLY, To explain the promise made to it and them, or in other words, to confider and apply the bleffing.

FIRST, To defcribe the virtue, meekness; and confequently the perfons bleffed under that charaЄter. Meekness may be described in general, to be that quietness and gentleness of mind which iffues not from any weakness of the faculties, or merely from a calm conftitution of blood and fpirits, but from the ftrength of prudence, and the power of religion. It is a great mistake in many people, who judge themselves poffefs'd of meeknefs as a virtue, when it is no more than the result

of

of an undiscerning or inconfiderate mind, not capable of being affected with paffion, for want of judgment to apprehend the nature of things. Such perfons are not properly meek, but thoughtless and infenfible. Others fall into the like mistake, by prefuming upon the mildness and foftnefs of their natural tempers, and these are also not properly to be accounted meek (in the sense of this text) because it proceeds from conftitution, not from principle, but the right character of them is tender and good-natured. Yet this laft I freely own to be a valuable endowment, and fuch a mind is certainly the moft apt and fruitful foil for receiving and improving the feeds of this virtue, chriftian meekness.

BUT we must enter deeper into the description of fuch an extenfive virtue, and confider it in the feveral objects towards which it may be exercised, and the feveral ways of expreffing it. MEEKNESS is a duty in our conduct,

I. TOWARDS God: and,

II. TOWARDS man.

FIRST then, 'Tis requifite that we be meek towards God; and that with refpect both to the revelation of his will, and to the methods of his providence.

I. IN the revelation of the will of God, we must confider what we are directed to believe, and what we are enjoin'd to practife; and in each of these we fhall fee occafion for the exercife of this. grace of meekness.

(1.) As to that part of the revelation of the will of God which directs us what we are to believe, there are fome dark and unconceivable myfteries in it, which as it was not in the power of

E 3

human

per

human understanding to contrive or to find out, fo neither is it forward to entertain them when they are revealed: as the trinity of perfons in one Godhead, the co-eternity of God the Son with God the Father, the real conjunction or union of the divine and human nature in Chrift, the doctrine of his facrifice for us upon the cross, the refurrection of the dead, &c. There are alfo feveral strange accounts given us of matters of fact, the wonders wrought by Mofes and the Prophets, the extraordinary birth of Chrift, from the womb of a virgin, his numerous and furprizing miracles, &c. all these are things which reafon, prejudiced by vain philofophy, knows not how to take to, but ftands plexed and wavering, 'till a fpirit of meeknefs fubjects the understanding, and over-rules all arguments of vulgar reafoning to fubmiffion to the authority and truth of God who has revealed them, and thus they pafs into matters of faith. Thofe who are too curious and critical in their enquiries into these things, and will believe nothing of revelation, but what they are able to make out by common principles of reason and observation, confider not how very weak and imperfect human understanding is, even in its best improvements, how little we know, or can know, of beings fuperior to our own. A meek and humble fpirit confiders this, and applies it, and looks with awe and reverence upon the facred myfteries of religion, as in their own nature too high to be understood by us, yet, as God has revealed them, neceffary and reafonable to be believed. But fuch as have not this difpofition, fuch as are proud, conceited, and felfwilled, fuch as imagine they understand things, and will believe nothing they cannot understand, are in a fair way to lofe their religion in the extravagance of their reafon and fancy. I have not time now to prove that the Scriptures, which re