Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 5 · Verse 5
Verse 5. Blessed are the meek.]
Meeknesse is the fruit … mourning for sinne: and is therefore fitly … next after it. He that can kindely melt in Gods presence, will be made thereby asforeign, … foreign, quod …, …. … ac …. …. meek as a lamb: and if God will forgive him his ten thousand …, he will not think much to forgive his brother a few farthings. Hence the wisdome from above is, first, pure, and then peaceable, gentle, easie to be entreated, &c. Jam. 3. 17. And love is said to proceed out of a pure heart, a good conscience and1 Tim. 15. … unfeigned. And when our Saviour told his Disciples … Luk. 17 4, 5.must forgive till seventy times seven times, Lord, encrease … expounded.faith, said they, Give us such a measure of godly mourning, as that we may be bold to believe that thou hast freely forgiven us, and we shall soon forgive our enemies. David was never … rigid, as when he had sinned by adultery and murther; and not yet mourned in good earnest. for his sinne. He put the … under saws and harrows of iron, and caused them to passe thorow the brick-kilne, &c. which was a strange execution, and fell out, whiles he lay yet in his sinne. Afterward we finde him in a better frame, and more meekned and mollified in his dealings with … and others, when he had soundly soaked himself in godly sorrow. True it is, that he was then under the rod; and that's a main means to make men meek. The Hebrew words that signifie … foreignand meek, grow both upon the same root, and are of so greatforeign …, that they are sometimes by the … rendered the one for the other, as Psal. 36. 11. Adversa, enim hominem mansuetum …, saith Chemnitius: And, how ever it goe with the outward man, The meek shall finde rest to their souls, Mat. 11. 29. Yea the meek in the Lord shall … their joy, Isa. 29. 19. And for outward respects: Meek Moses complains not of Miriams murmurings, but God strikes in for him the more. And heJoh. 8. 50. that said, I seek not mine own glory, addes, But there is one that seeketh it, and judgeth. God takes his part ever that fights not for himself, and is champion to him that strives not, but, for peace sake, parteth with his own right, otherwhiles.
For they shall inherit the earth.]
One would think that meek men, that bear and forbear, that put up and forgive, committing 1 …. 2.their cause to him that judgeth righteously (as Christ did) should be soon baffled, and out-sworn out of their patrimony, with honest Naboth. But there's nothing lost by meeknesse and yeeldance. Abraham yeelds over his right of choice: Lot taketh it. And behold, Lot is crossed in that which he chose, Abraham blessed in that which was left him. God never suffers any man to leese by an humble remission of right, in a desire of peace. The heavens, even the heavens are the Lords: but the Psal. 115. 16.earth hath he given to the children of men: Yet with this proviso, that as heaven is taken by violence, so is earth by meeknesse. And God (the true proprietary) loves no tenants better, nor … longer leases to any, then to the meek. They shall inherit, thatProv. 13. 22. is, peaceably enjoy what they have, and transferre it to posterity, they shall give inheritance to their childrens children. As on the other side, frowardnesse forfeits all into the Lords hands, and he many times taketh the forfeiture, and outs such persons, … upon them with a … ejectione, as upon …, …, and others. foreign, said Plato. The Lord Treasurer Burleigh was wont to say, That he over … will more by patience then pertinacy. His private estate he managed with that integrity, that he never … any man, no man ever sued him. He was in the number of those few (saith M. … )… Elik. …. …. that lived and died with glory. For as … of heart … Act. and …. fol. 987.make you high with God: even so meeknesse of spirit and of speech shall make you … into the hearts of men, … M. Tindall in a letter of his to Iohn Frith, afterwards his fellow-Martyr.