SERMON XX.

FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER III. VERSE IV.

The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is, in the sight of God, of a great price.

THE meekness of the gospel has been so far mistaken by one sect of Christians, that they have erroneously interpreted it to mean, passive submission to violence and injury; a principle which operates as an incitement to many bad passions, by leaving to them their indisputed reward, and urges us to abandon those salutary means of defence, implanted by nature for the encouragement

of justice, and the due order of the world.

That all men should cease to resist, would be of very little importance, unless all men were to cease to attack; for, otherwise, such a system would be merely the extinction of all rights, and the quiet toleration of every wrong. On the contrary, if the object be to diminish, as much as possible, the quantity of evil in the universe, and if its sudden destruction be impossible, it is much better to render vice and violence unsuccessful in their object, by that calm, yet vigilant resistance, which is more desirous of preventing future, than revenging past aggression.

As I cannot, for these reasons, believe, that the meekness of the gospel is pusillanimity, I cannot allow it any more to be error; it cannot consist in an undue depreciation of ourselves, or an ignorance of any one superiority we may chance to possess over our fellow creatures; the gospel never teaches ignorance; it stimulates man to the study of himself as the best of all wisdom; it permits him to discover the rank which God has assigned to him; but threatens him

with omnipotent anger, if he turns the gifts of the Creator to the scorn, and oppression of the creature, and when he feels the pride of talents, or of power; the scriptures unveil to him the glory of God, and tell him of the days of the life of man, that they are few, and evil; and that when the breath of his nostrils is gone, he returneth again to his dust.

Christian meekness is neither ignorance, nor pusillanimity; but the meekness of the gospel, so far as it is concerned in the vindication of its own rights, vindicates them only when they are of considerable importance. Nothing more distant from the ornament of a meek, and quiet spirit, than the incessant, and scrupulous vindication of minute rights, and an avidity for litigation and contest; a meek man will cede much, and before he vindicates a right, or resents an injury, will consider, if that for which he contends is worth the price of peace, not only if it be an object for which justice will permit him to struggle, but one which prudence forbids him to relinquish; he will pass over

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many trifling wrongs, forgive slight injuries, as the natural, and inevitable consequences of the imperfect morality of man; he will subdue malice by openness, and benignity; turn away wrath by soft answers; disarm hostility by patience; and endure much for the gospel, that he may gain the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which, in the sight of God, is of a great price.

Evangelical meekness is never more exemplified, than in the proper management of superior talents, so as to make them rather a source of pleasure, and encouragement, than of apprehension to those with whom we live. The same observation applies equally to superior rank, superior birth, and every species of artificial, as well as natural distinction; meekness softens down the distance between man, and man, sweetens the malevolent passions which it is apt to excite, and is so far from diminishing subordination, that it strengthens it by converting a duty into a pleasure : For mankind are at the bottom, perhaps, well aware that they must be governed, and the

obedience of men may be raised into a species of idolatry, when those who could command them court them; and, when they find the garb of power laid aside, on purpose to give pleasure, and diffuse the cheerfulness, and confidence of equality. The true meekness of the gospel, therefore, is powerfully evinced in the suppression of any superiority that may be painful, and oppressive, by by informing, rather than exposing the ignorant, by rising up the humble, and judiciously bringing forward to notice, those whose merits are obscured by their apprehensions; Christianity is not confined to churches, and to hospitals; to houses of mourning, or of prayer; but it penetrates every situation, and it decorates every relation of life; the ornament of a meek, and a quiet spirit may be worn amidst worldly joys, without diminishing them. We may be near to God, when we seem the most distant from him, and offer up a sacrifice of meekness, that shall be as pleasant as a prayer in the temple.

It is not only unchristian, but it is unworthy, and little, to thrust forward