A
Discourse On Meekness and Quietness of Spirit
Abridged
from the Rev. Matthew Henry
Edited
by R.P. Woitowitz Sr.
A
meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 1
Peter 3:4
In
Reference to our Own Anger (Part 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 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 color,
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, may not be drowned by the 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 has first seriously weighed
the cause in just and even balances, while a steady and impartial
hand holds the scales, and a free and unprejudiced thought adjudges
it necessary. It is said of our Lord Jesus, (Read John 11:33), he
troubled himself; which denotes it to be a considerate act, and what
he saw reason for. 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 comes not in by this door, but climbs up some other
way, the same is a thief and a robber, against which we should guard.
In a time of war—and such a time it is in every sanctified soul, in
a constant war between grace and corruption—due care must be taken
to examine all travelers, especially those that come armed: whence
they came, whither they go, whom 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 that we are about to be angry with, and for
what. What are the merits of the cause; wherein lay the offense; 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 it would abstract all which passion is apt to suggest, and
hear reason only as it becomes rational creatures to do.
Three
great dictates of meekness we find put together in one scripture: "Be
swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;" which some observe
to be couched in three proper names of Ishmael's sons, (Read Genesis
25:14; 1 Chronicles 1:30), which Bishop Prideaux, in the beginning of
the wars, recommended to a gentleman that had been his pupil, as the
summary of his advice—Mishma, Dumah, Massa; the signification of
which is, hear, keep silence, bear. Hear reason,
keep passion silent, and then you will not find it difficult to bear
the provocation.
It
is said of the Holy One of Israel, when the Egyptians provoked him,
he weighed a path to his anger; so the margin reads it from the
Hebrew, (Read Psalm 78:50). Justice first poised the cause, and then
anger poured out the vials. Thus the Lord came down to see the pride
of the Babel-builders before he scattered them, and to see the
wickedness of Sodom before he overthrew it—though both were obvious
and barefaced—to teach us to consider before we are angry, and to
judge before we pass sentence, that herein we may be followers of God
as dear children, and be merciful, as our Father which is in heaven
is merciful.
We
read of the "meekness of wisdom;" for where there is not
wisdom, that wisdom which is profitable to direct, that wisdom of the
prudent which is to understand his way, meekness will not long be
preserved. It is our rashness and inconsideration that betray us to
all the mischiefs of an ungoverned passion, on the neck of which the
reins are laid which should be kept in the hand of reason, and so we
are hurried upon a thousand precipices. Nehemiah is a remarkable
instance of prudence presiding in just resentments: he owns, "I
was very angry when I heard their cry;" but that anger did not
at all transgress the laws of meekness, for it follows, "then I
consulted with myself," or as the Hebrew has it, my heart
consulted in me. Before he expressed his displeasure he retired into
his own bosom, took time for sober thought upon the case, and then he
rebuked the nobles in a very solid, rational discourse, and the
success was good. In every cause when passion demands immediate
judgment, meekness moves for further time, and will have the matter
fairly argued, and counsel heard on both sides.
When
Job had any quarrel with his servants, he was willing to admit a
rational debate of the matter, and to hear what they had to say for
themselves; for says he, "What shall I do when God riseth up?"
And withal, "Did not He that made me in the womb, make him?"
When our hearts are at any time hot within us, we should do well to
put that question to ourselves which God put to Cain, Gen. 4:6. Why
am I wroth? Why am I angry at all? Why so soon angry? Why so very
angry? Why so far transported and dispossessed of myself by my anger?
What reason is there for all this? Do I well to be angry for a gourd,
that came up in a night and perished in a night? (Read Jonah 4:9).
Should I be touched to the quick by such a sudden and transient
provocation? Will not my cooler thoughts correct these hasty
resentments, and therefore were it not better to check them now? Such
are the reasonings of the meekness of wisdom.
