A Discourse on Meekness and Quietness of Spirit: The Nature and Excellency of a Meek and Quiet Spirit [Updated and Annotated]

We must be of a meek spirit. Meekness is an easiness of spirit - not a sinful easiness by which we might be defiled, but a gracious easiness to be worked upon by that which is good, as in those whose heart of stone is taken away and to whom a heart of flesh is given.Meekness accommodates the soul to every happening and so makes a person calm within himself and toward all around him. When the grace of meekness gains dominion in the soul, it alters its temperament and submits it to authority. Then 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.Quietness is the evenness, the composure, and the rest of the soul, and it sets forth both the nature and the excellency of the grace of meekness. Indeed, the greatest comfort and happiness of man is sometimes expressed by this very word - quietness.Quietness is recommended to us in Scripture as both a grace to be clothed with and a duty to be practiced. In the midst of all the insults and injustices that are, or may be, offered to us, we must keep our spirits composed and undisturbed, demonstrating by a calm, even, and steady conduct that they are so. This is quietness.