whose sin and punishment both lie in the unruliness of their own
and temper strike the mean between extremes; whereas he that allows these winds of passion to get head, and spreads a large sail before them, while he shuns one rock, splits upon another, and is in danger of being drowned in destruction and perdition by many foolish and hurtful lusts, especially those whence wars and fightings come.
2. We must be quiet as the sea is quiet from waves. The wicked, whose sin and punishment both lie in the unruliness of their own souls, and the violence and disorder of their own passions, which perhaps will not be the least of their eternal torments, are compared to "the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt;" that is, they are uneasy to themselves and to all about them, "raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame;" their hard speeches which they speak against God and dignities and things which they know not, their great swelling words and mockings, Jude 13, 18, these are the shame they foam out. Now meekness is a grace of the Spirit, that moves upon the face of the waters and quiets them, smooths the ruffled sea and stills the noise of it; it casts forth none of the mire and dirt of passion. The waves mount not up to heaven in proud and vainglorious boasting; they go not down to the depths to scrape up vile and scurrilous language: there is no reeling to and fro, as men overcome with drink or with their own passion; there is none of that transport which brings them to their wits' end; but "they are glad because they are quiet; so He brings them to their desired haven." This calmness and evenness of spirit makes our passage over the sea of this world safe and pleasant, quick and speedy towards the desired harbor, and is amiable and exemplary in the eyes of others.
3. We must be quiet as the land is quiet from war. It was the observable happiness of Asa's reign, that "in his days the land was quiet." In the preceding reigns there was no peace to him that went