refentment and revenge, which always drives people of furious, ungoverned paffions, to finful, and often to very unjust and injurious extremes. The meek man will never be angry without a caufe, or above measure; will never take an affront where none is meant, nor refent a real affront above what it deferves. He is flow to wrath; not eafily provoked; thinketh no evil; fpeaketh not unadvifedly with his lips; rendereth not railing for railing; but, by foft and reafonable anfwers, turneth away wrath, and overcometh evil with good. Anger refteth in the bofom of fools: But it is not fo with the meek man; he letteth not the fun go down on his wrath. If his brother fin againft him seventy-seven times in a day, and fay, I repent, he forgiveth him, and easily maketh up any breach, upon proper acknowledgment and fubmiffion. Peace is his clement, and wrath the averfion of his nature.

7. Meeknefs difcovers itself, in a great cautioufnefs of giving offence to others. Proud, angry, wrathful and turbulent men, are not cautious of this: They are perpetually giving offence, and feem to delight and glory in it, as a fign of courage. But the gospel teacheth us to speak evil, (unneeffarily) of no man; not to be brawlers, but gentle, kind, tender-hearted, thus fhew

$ 2

ing all meekness to all men.* The meek man is ever a civil, affable, courteous man; and a good heart teaches him that which is the grand precept in politeness and true good breeding; namely, to give no offence or uneafinefs to any in company; but to endeavor to give pleasure and fatisfaction to all, fo far as that may be done with a good confcience.

8. Meeknefs will fhew itself in a modeft and becoming deportment in every different rank, ftation and relation of life. It will make servants, children, and all inferiors contented and pleafed with their low and inferior ftations; the poor with their poverty, and the afflicted with their afflictions. And it will make fuperiors humble in their exalted stations, affable, and courteous, juft and merciful, mild and gentle to those that are under them, in inferior ftates.

9. Above all, a meek temper will fhew itself in things that relate to religion. Surely the wrath of man worketh not the righte oufnefs of GOD. We are to contend indeed earnestly for the faith once delivered to the faints, and not to deny or diffemble what we take to be the truth of the gospel, even at the risque of life itself: But to manage religious disputes and controverfies with angry contention and a perfecuting fpirit, is to defend and maintain truth in a

Tit. iii. 2.

manner quite oppofite to the temper and fpirit of the gofpel, and which is never like to make profelytes. It is to offer a holy facrifice with unhallowed fire, and, like Uzzah, to pollute the ark of GOD, by a wrong touch: Therefore, we are commanded, "In meeknefs to inftruct those who oppose themselves. To be ready to

66

give an answer to every man that afketh "us a reafon of the hope that is in us, with "meeknefs and fear." And even offending brethren are to be treated, and if poffible recovered from the fnares of the devil, "In the fpirit of meeknefs. Nay, the "wifdom that is from above, is firft pure, "then peaceable, (or meek) full of mercy "and good works ;"-and a wife and knowing man in religion, is to rule his tongue and angry paffions, and to fhew, out of a good converfation, his works, with meekness of wisdom. Indeed, the very genius of the gospel is meekness.-It is the miniftry of reconciliation with GOD and man. It proclaims peace upon earth, as well as good will towards men.

10. We cannot be chriftians without this temper; without all lowliness and meekness For, this is the very temper and spirit of Christ, and he has commanded us

* 2 Tim. ii. 25. +1 Pet. iii. 15. Gal. vi. L.

W Jam. iii. 13, &c.

to take his yoke upon us and learn of him for, fays he, "Iam meek and low of heart." And this temper he eminently expreffed through the whole of his own life.

11. Meeknefs is one of the fruits of the regenerating, fanctifying fpirit, without which we are fure, none will enter into the kingdom of heaven. Indeed, the most of thefe fruits, as enumerated by St. Paul, are branches of meeknefs. "Meeknefs, "love, joy, peace, long-fuffering, gentle"nefs, goodnefs;"-and the greatest number of the works of the flesh, are directly the oppofites of meeknefs; fuch as, "ha tred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife "and envyings."

12. Meeknefs is a grace exceedingly ornamental to the chriftian character. We are commanded to be clothed with humility (which is a fifter grace to meeknefs)" and "to put on the ornament of a meek and "quiet fpirit, which is in the fight of GOD, "of great price."* It is faid alfo," that "he who is flow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his fpirit, "than he that taketh a city." The meek alfo are pronounced blessed, by our Saviour, and have a promife that they shall inberit the earth.t

1 Pet. iii. 4. Prov. xvi. 32. Matth. 5.

13. The meek man has the only chance of going easily, quietly and happily through the world. Nothing that happens will much rifle or disturb him, and his temper will render him beloved and admired by all.

14. Let us not miftake an easy, indolent, insensible, cowardly natural temper for christian meekness. It is a grace of GOD's holy Spirit; and the true chriftian is meek, not for want of true courage and fenfibility of injuries received, but in obedience to the laws of GOD, and in conformity to the doctrines and example of his Saviour.

15. If we would obtain this grace we muft pray and ftrive to obtain it with all diligence and much self-denial: For, it is directly against the grain of our corrupt and finful nature, and the prevailing maxims of the world. Indeed, no man will ever be endued with true chriftian meekness, till he has been renewed by the holy Spirit, and has learned of Chrift to be meek and lowly of heart.

ESSAY XXX.

CHARITY, and the opposite VICES.

1. CH

HARITY is but another word for love; and when it is ufed as a term in divinity, in its largest and most extenfive