Afternoon/Evening Reflection
Meekness and quietness seem to import much the same thing, but the latter having something of metaphor in it, will illustrate the former, and therefore we shall speak of them distinctly. We must be of a MEEK spirit. Meekness is easiness of spirit: not a sinful easiness to be debauched, as Ephraim's, who willingly walked after the commandment of the idolatrous princes; nor a simple easiness to be imposed upon and deceived, as Rehoboam's, who, when he was forty years old, is said to be young and tender-hearted; but a gracious easiness to be wrought upon by that which is good, as theirs whose heart of stone is taken away and to whom a heart of flesh is given. Meekness accommodates the soul to every occurrence, and so makes a man easy to himself and to all about him. The Latins call a meek man mansuetus, which alludes to the taming and reclaiming of creatures wild by nature, and bringing them to be tractable and familiar. James 3:7,-8. Man's corrupt nature has made him like the wild ass used to the wilderness, or the swift dromedary traversing her ways. Jeremiah 2:23- 24. But the grace of meekness, when that gets dominion in the soul, alters the temper of it, submits it to management; and now the wolf dwells with the lamb, and the leopard lies down with the kid, and a little child may lead them; for enmities are laid aside, and there is nothing to hurt or destroy. Isaiah 11:6, 9.
James 3:7,-8; Jeremiah 2:23- 24; Isaiah 11:6, 9
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