here have the keenest edge of seriousness be elevated the highest made the firmest and the most extensive Let them take in universally whatsoever may most instigate to and quicken in this high operation proportionate it to this working out salvation the so great Gospel Salvation Thus did the prodigal who represents the Returning sinner when sensible first of his unspeakable misery and thence apprehensive of the great obtainable Felicity the so glorious Gospel salvation never did he so act any thinking made such warm work of it as now In like manner the Jaylor Acts 16. having such a dreadful awakening from sense of a lost condition O what a pondering of Salvation was that from a heart so warm'd and edg'd when Extremity of Misery hath the deepest sense Meditation of Salvation and Recovery hath the highest seriousness What can have such a thinking as when one thinks for life and that eternal Let Meditation take in 1. Those Considerations that are most awakening that unspeakable misery comes upon us by sins so innumerable As contracting on the person such horrid guilt and conveying into the heart such hellish filth Every sin with the aggravations contracting a debt to Divine Justice and that entered into God debt Book which we never can pay or get paiâ— without a surety but must bring destruction in Eternal fire 3. Then weigh the great uncertainty of life and how certain death casts every one upon an Eternal state unavoidably upon inconceivable Eternity 4. Then must be weighed the Mighty Enemies and multitudes of hinderances lying in the way of escaping 2. Next come the Considerations that are the most highly encouraging to strive to enter in at the strait Gate such as the Scriptures fullness supplies O how great and prevalent are those in the Gospel to wise and warm us to strengthen and heighten Meditation As Eternal life which in the believing heart is already begun with sure promise of carrying it on to perfection by our yet co-working with the holy Spirit of Christ working in all his which we must do continually Phil. 2.12 Work out your own salvation c. What may I say of conjunction with God by union with Christ by Faith of Communion with Christ in justification and pardon of sin a most glorious righteousness reconciliation adoption with a sure title to Heaven and the glorious graces of Christ his image holiness wisdom life power peace passing understanding joy unspeakable with establishment growth in grace victory over all Enemies Ah what wishly lookings should we exercise daily at this so great salvation and the transcendencies and perfections of it and at last such an outlet of all evils such an inlet of all good such a Crown of Glory with all the inconceivable Excellencies of it and the perfect fruition and vision of God for ever I have been longer on this than was my purpose yet shall crave leave for one thing more and that which is after all momentous cousiderations besides the greatest of strongest influence and efficacy that is the vastness inconceivable vastness of Eternity Not Eternity meerly in the abstract only considered in it self but in reference to misery or felicity I say to all other inducements adde Eternity hang on this great weight of Eternity of Misery and Felicity Endeavour with thy utmost Art and Industry by all resemblances to have che liveliest and most operative representations of it Breathe thy soul often by healthful exercise here breathe thy soul frequently up this Hill of Eternity whatsoever thou meditatest on let still this be one Object entertained in thy serious thoughts this vast Eternity Let this have its due time 2. Holy Meditation hath besides the former several other excellent ends to be aimed at and improved to As Artificers do with their Gold beat it out sometimes to its utmost ductility and extensiveness Improve this Gold of precious heavenly Objects beat them out to the utmost by this Hammer this art of Divine Meditation The Art of Medtiation will like Solomons Temple overlaid with Gold overlay thy heart with Christs pure Gold and make it rich and glorious Ah therefore Christian act up thy Meditation to these precious ends and chiefly lay a mighty stress upon that so momentous thing Eternity of Son Misery or Felicity So I have at last dispatcht these first things CHAP. XX. Of the partieular Ends of Meditation in respect of our selves THere be various Ends of Meditation respecting our selves I shall mention among others these seven particular Ends relating to our own spiritual advantage 1. For a principal improver of saving Knowledge 2. For to make our Knowledge Clear and Distinct 3. To found a Rich Treasury of Truths and make them sure 4. And to be an introducer of habitual wisdom an acquired habit of wisdom to the first given wisdom in heart renovation 5. For a Kindler of Heavenly Fire and Flame in the heart 6. For a Mighty Corroborater of holy purpose 7. To be a constant quickner of the Christian course 1. Meditation is for a Principal Improver of saving and heavenly Knowledge To set as it were more Lights on the Golden Table in the Temple of the holy heart to repleuish the Golden Candlestick with more and better Lights and glorious burning Lamps to yield clearer light in the dark heart Psal 119.97 98 99. I am wiser than my Enemies for thy Commandments are ever with me that 's in Meditation continually as v. 97. Thy Law it is my Meditation continually or all the day v. 99. I have more understanding than all my Teachers for thy Testimonies are my Meditation and v. 100. I understand more than the Ancients c. Here 's an assertion in a kind of gradation of the successfulness of his holy Meditation namely understanding wisdom and excelling in them Wiser than his Enemies yea than his Teachers yea than the Ancients that have had longest time largest opportunities for greatest Knowledge and highest wisdom Meditation is the ground inlet and improver of Knowledge It is not the great and much reading makes the Scholar but the studying and pondering that is read It is not the reading much that makes the knowing Christian but the meditating on what is read Reading without Meditation is like swallowing much meat without due chewing that makes a lean man so this makes a lean mind Many read and hear Much but understand little because they bring themselves so little under this Ordinance of Meditation If thou wouldest be right excellent in Knowledge be rich in it and of a higher stature in wisdom than others as David was strive to write after his rare Copy in abundant Meditating 2. Meditation is to make Knowledge clear and distinct The Apostle Phil. 1.9 mentions love its abounding in Knowledge and Judgment and in other places we have mention of discerning and judging As to matter of Learning in Arts and Sciences they have the most clear and distinct heads have their Notions most methodical distinct and most mellow who
1. Let me first begin with the meritorious cause of it That which Heathens knew not Nature saw not Philosophy and Learning could not find out nor reach only holy Scripture tells me and shews it to be that most black inlet sin Rom. 5.12 Death entred into the world by sin and v. 17. By one mans offence death reigned not only entred but reigned hath mastered and will master all sinners Sin that greatest evil in the world sin the only contrariety to the living God that gave life to man at first and ever since sin that only injury to the blessed God bred and brought death the greatest misery to man here sin that provoked God to pass the sentence sin occasioning the vindictive cause the Justice of God to let in death death with the consequences of it that would follow without a Mediator that Adam knew not of Death so considered is the way of the very deepest revenge a God can take But then this black part of it bodily death without that blacker Train of Hell and Eternity in it is that which must challenge a very great proportion of ponderings 2. Let me look at not only the rise of it and the bare wrath occasioning the inflicting it but that so fixt and irreversible sentence that like the Law of the Medes and Persians cannot be broken Heb. 9.27 It 's appointed for all the universality of sin hath given death an universal sting and the Statute of Heaven hath impowered Death's Extensiveness over all and set a seal of irrevocableness to it as to all men Therefore it is appointed I must think particularly for me whatever I am or do or can in utmost possibility do I must not once think of making an escape from it Yea let me consider as I must die so the very Year Moneth Day Hour and Moment is immutably fixt and can never be altered Job 14.5 the place also where the means whereby the manner how all circumstances about it are unchangeably determined 3. But how material is that particular of the uncertainty of the time and manner to me that 's a reservation and secret kept in the Lord 's own breast not possibly to be exactly known before without it be revealed as Christ of the Great Day of Judgment saith Mat. 24.36 Of that day and hour knoweth no man And Verse 42. Ye know not what hour your Lord will come And 44. In such an hour you think not your Lord comes so the two latter may be applyed to this of death when he calls for an accompt of our Stewardships and Talents and passes particular and personal Judgment 3. Let me pass next to the Meditation serious pondering of the nature of it and that great dreadfulness of that most terrible of terribles that King of terrours Job 18.14 Here that I may duly look on it let me look up for a God to teach me as to number my days Ps 90. so to be wise to consider my latter end to do that hard work overcome that difficulty of looking Death-watd Nature abhors the thinking of it Corruption all it can opposes it but Grace must bring and fix earnestly and often the Eye upon it familiarize death to me let me then Eye my dissolution the parting of the two nearest dearest friends the Soul 's taking its sad farewel of its former dwelling it s going going in an instant out of the Body and then that which Death doth as an Enemy to all former Life concerns and as an entrance upon an Eternal Condition 1. As an Enemy to all enjoyments how sweet soever Pleasures all now quenched Honours now all dasht Riches and Estate now all lost Power now utterly ceast 2. An Enemy to all Relations Friends Acquaintance now must I shake hands with all nearest and dearest the sweetest and most helpful Relations 3. An Enemy to all Imployments necessary or pleasurable no Work no Business no Invention after it 4. An Enemy to all Opportunities and Means of Grace never to read the Bible more never to hear one Sermon more never to receive the Lords Supper more never to make one Prayer the shortest of one of the fewest words more and then also when thou art just launching into the length of vast Eternity But now must be Prayerless and totally helpless yea now thy Souls condition becomes becalmed and thou canst not obtain one gale of the Holy Spirit to blow upon thee and help move thee in any measure 5. It s an Enemy quickly to the curious frame and so exquisite building of thy body with all its parts and members made with such adaptations and sutableness whatever with all the Tempers Qualities Offices Abilities and Actings of it An Enemy likewise to all the senses seeing hearing the two disciplinary with feeling tasting smelling the so likewise necessary 6. It is an Enemy and Destroyer of all comliness and beauty form and shape And all these former by being the Enemy and Destroyer of that thy so sweet and precious life by making that Jewel drop out of the Cabinet of the Body or rather driving forth thy immortal and invaluable soul bringing with it a Writ of forcible entrance coming with an Execution to turn out that old inhabitant of the body securing it from regaining possession making it stand empty and thence exposing the body to rot ruine turn to dust and expose it to Oblivion as if it had never been But then upon thy Souls thus leaving thy Body immediately and instantly it is cast upon a state of Eternity of Misery if thou wert not in Christ or felicity if found and dying in him When Life ends Eternity begins O this all amazing Eternity this so vast and inconceivable Eternity no way to be exprest or set forth no way to be understood or known a Glass that is ever running a Chain that is ever lengthening who can number the Sands of this Glass who can reckon the links of this Chain of Eternity without stop or period bound or end O let me be ever musing of this Ever have it so full in my Eye while I have time this moment of time here that it may wind up and leave me in possession of most happy Eternity But to affect my spirit aright and be wise in the due managing of this Meditation of dreadful Death let me look to and ponder the Scripture Commands for remembring and considering my latter end and the Arguments strongly inducing to it How frequently and earnestly is it urged upon all O let me lay the weight and stress of them close to my heart not suffering it to put by the thoughts of death how awk and averse soever my carnal spirit is towards it Let me therefore not only muse on the sentence the peremptory and irrevocable sentence passed upon all in general and so upon my self in particular but on it as ready to be executed this hour yea this moment for ought I or any in the world can tell Ah let me say to my self the
Directions to old Christians pag. 360 Chap. 20. More Directions for setting Meditation on work pag. 363 Chap. 21. Of Meditation respecting those that are called Fathers pag. 369 Chap. 22. Of the particular management of Meditation of those called Fathers pag. 373 Chap. 23. The Conclusion exciting every one to a constant daily performance of this excellent duty of divine Meditation pag. 376 BY reason of the Authors absence from the Press several faults are escaped which the Reader is intreated to correct or candidly pass by SOLITUDE IMPROVED IN MEDITATIONS Upon DIVINE MEDITATION THat so noble Subject and necessary Duty of Divine Meditation I have now chosen by Christs assistance to speak of to you Of Meditation in general according to Scripture-latitude in the various Kinds and Considerations of it there exprest My Text therefore must not be one single Scripture for the total foundation of what I shall tender but the universal vote and passages asperst through the Bible some of which are these you may please to turn unto 1 Tim. 4.15 Meditate upon these things There Timothy and in him by way of proportion every person is commanded Meditation Psal 1.2 In that Law doth he meditate day and night If the blessed man doth so meditate then all who will be blessed must do the like And Psal 77.12 I will meditate on all thy works Both the word and works of God must be the godly mans meditation Psal 63.6 and Meditate on thee in the night-watches And Psal 104.34 My Meditation of him shall be sweet God must be meditated on and that Meditation should be sweet Obs From these and the like passages scattered over the Bible the Observation or Conclusion is this Pious Meditation is the Duty of every Christian or It is the high Institution of Christ and greatly Incumbent duty of Christians to exercise themselves much in holy Meditation A rare and soul-enriching way such as none know the sweetness and blessed Incomes of it but such who exercise themselves in it Philosophers tell us there would be no life or motion in the lower World if the Sun and Celestial Bodies stood still Physicians say if the Heart did not continually beat in the Body there would be no life and motion in the little World Man And Experience proves if there were no Springs or Weights in Watches and artificial Engines they could perform nothing What the Sun Moon and Stars are to life and motion here below what the Heart is to the Bodies life and moving and what the Springs and Weights are to Motions Artificial that in a high degree is Meditation to spiritual Life and Motion Of the various things tendred to us for truths this is the great Trier the Percolation and Refiner the Melioration and Improver Such things that come to us crude and raw become mellow and concocted by Meditation It is the Golden Scale to give Divine things their due weight The Souls Rare Limbeck to effect the highest Operations to extract the richest Spirits for Heart use Meditation is of that happy Influence it makes the Mind wise the Affections warm the Soul fat and flourishing and the Conversation greatly fruitful Psal 119. Who can but practise it continue it contend to larger improvements in this Heavenly Art that hath once experienced and fed upon the surpassing sweetness and refreshments the unspeakable solaces and ravishments both had and heightned in it To speak of it adequately I cannot it is such an attainment that none know the All of it Nothing but progress in the daily practice can help to comprehend it There is still a plus ultra a Going and a Knowing further I shall speak to four things only concerning Meditation 1. The Precedents upon the File of Scripture or some rare Examples of the Practice and but briefly 2. The Nature Ingredients Qualifications and the several sorts of Meditation and here I must be something large 3. The Grounds and supporting Reasons of it to manifest it 4. The diverse Improvements of it to divers sorts of persons First The Precedents on the Sacred File recorded Instances in Scripture There are among others four Instances which I shall single out four famous holy and eminent ones The first is that of the godly Patriarch Isaac Gen. 24.63 Isaac went out in the Evening to meditate God is a most free Agent as in all other actings so in conferring his Scripture Honours He honours whom he pleaseth and when and how he pleaseth He is bound to give no account of his matters And oft we see him in his Goings and Doings but cannot by searching find him out Job 11.7 Divine Soveraignty and Wisdom is pleased in the Scripture Records to fix the first honour of this practice of Meditation on holy Isaac Doubtless his so excellent Father holy Abraham did use to beat this path to Heaven who walkt so much with God Doubtless those other Patriarchs and Saints living before Abraham travelled much in this heavenly Road. Enoch for his walking with God so highly honoured was no stranger to this way Questionless it was one of his walks He certainly used to go to Heaven Mentally before he was translated Personally He used to ascend up by Meditation before his happy translation But Isaac is he who first is mentioned for acting this holy Meditating It may be he exceeded and excelled in this Heavenly Art and Practice and because it was a Duty performed privately and that was not known God would reward and honour him openly by making it known and that some hundreds of Years after by Moses his holy Pen. It 's probable there was something more than ordinary in it which occasioned this first Record of Meditation However this was the holy pleasure of God so to fix it to place it first on the File of godly Meditators Isaac is the first mentioned Meditator in Scripture Records Instance 2. The second which is the fullest to all intents and respects is that high and noble Precedent of holy David That man after Gods own heart among other reasons I believe for his beating so much this path to Heaven for the frequencies of his visits made this way He soon became a man of Great Troubles and Difquiets yet then in them he would resolutely cut out his way and keep his course of holy Meditation witness those many Psalms penned in and on occasions of his troubles and stiled his Meditations He after Sauls death is crowned King of Judah had his great multitudes of high Employments was a mighty Warriour and so must be exposed to highest hazards yet nothing in no time whatever should check or retard his course Though he had his Head full of Thoughts his Heart full of Troubles his Hands full of Work nothing should hinder him in this high Exercise of his so experienced sweet Meditation In Psal 1.2 He makes Meditation the Character of a blessed man To meditate in Gods Law day and night And what he makes a Rule for others he makes good
this Building the better to bear it up These should be as so many great Arteries branching forth from the Heart to convey vital spirits into the body of this heavenly Duty of Meditation and keep it alive and warm and improvingly active CHAP. VI. Of the proper Objects of Divine Meditation FRom things of a remoter relation to the subject in hand I pass to such as are the nearer the more intrinsical and peculiar And here comes first to be handled the Matter or the Object of this Meditation When the wise King Solomon was to build the Temple first he is providing the rich and precious Materials then he proceeds to the framing and fitting of them and then to erecting and finishing that glorious Structure That which next is to be done is first to look out the Materials of our work and then the framing and finishing up is to follow The Materials or objective parts are far more rich and precious than those of Solomon's Temple They are as our Description of Meditation holds them forth either 1. Such as are more properly and purely spiritual and heavenly in their own Nature 2. Or things considered in a Spiritual way and to a Spiritual end and use It is not the Consideration of things as to their Entity or Being that is Metaphysical Metaphysicks treat of Entities of the meer Beings of things Of the first Being namely God and of secondary Beings derived from God the first Being It is not the Consideration of things as Rational the Rational respects things have one to another this is Logical Logick that considers respects of things as Causes Effects Subjects Adjuncts and the like It is not the Consideration of things in their particular Natures and Natural properties This Natural Philosophy Contemplates It is not the Consideration of things Civil Moral or Political these Moralists and States-men are exercised about Neither is it the consideration of particular Crafts and Trades this is Mechanical and but a work prudential and Humane not Divine But this Meditation hath Objects of a far higher Sphere and Rank things of a Divine and Theological Consideration Nay nor yet is it the meer Study of things Theological and Divine A man may be a Student in Divinity beat and busie his Brains about the high points and Mysteries in it may read and muse on Matters Divine and yet not be a Meditator such as we speak of not act Divine Meditation A man may act upon things as Notions and as matters of Knowledge or to make up an Universal knowing person he may act Contemplation for Curiosity for such an use as the Heathen man Aristotle made of reading Moses his first Chapter of Genesis whereof he passed his undue and heathenish censure that Moses affirms all but proves nothing he read first and then pondered and then censured But he acted not Meditation not that we speak of It was not a consideration of spiritual things as spiritual and for spiritual ends but only as wise man acts his thoughts upon things as New for New notions and improving Knowledge Many thus consider things Scriptural and Divine study them as we call it study Books of Divinity study things in the Scripture but they act not the Duty of Meditation They act upon things as Matters Intellectual and Rational not as Heavenly and Spiritual Act for Notion and Speculation and not for Holiness Act Curiosity not Christianity The right Meditater far transcends any meer Student he acts a more Noble part hath a more Noble and sublime manner of Operation Aristotles studying Moses Writings and David's Meditating in the Law of God how far do they differ So a Heathen's or a Mahometan's or a Jew 's or any such persons studying matters in the Bible differs greatly from Meditating in it Nay many Protestants are great Students in Divinity that never Meditated they dwell upon the study of it but touch not with the least of their fingers the hard work of holy Meditation But to return to our matter in hand and to speak to this subject of Meditation Formerly it was said that Spiritual things or things in a Spiritual and Heavenly manner considered are the proper and adequate Object of this Meditation And bere O how large and fair a prospect hath the Spiritual Eye to Expatiate and Recreate it self in The Infinitely Glorious and All-sufficient God the Father Son and Holy Spirit as the Scripture reveals The vast world the frame of Heaven above and Earth below with all the so innumerable things contained in them Their sundry Natures Properties and Vses with the so beauteous and various Excellencies of them The mighty Sustentations and Preservations of all things Created as to their Beings their Faculties and their Acts. The most wise righteous and holy Governing of them with a most steady and never erring hand unto their particular ends and with a most certain winding them all up ultimately in the Supream scope of the great Creator and Governour Then that peculiar Government of the rational Creatures Angels and Men The unspeakably sad full of some Angels and all Mankind The Recovery of some men and their Eternal Salvation by Christ the Redeemer God in our Nature Here here is matter of Meditation The great mystery of Godliness as 1 Tim. 3.16 And particularly the four last things as they are called namely Death Judgment Heaven and Hell Besides there is for Meditation the whole Book of boly Scriptures now compleat in the New Testament-times with the Ordinances of Christ and the Covenant of Grace And lastly the Meditation of that so great concern our own particular Estates how matters stand with us and are like to be with us to all Eternity which Eternity challenges and imposes on every person the greatest both intensions and frequencies of thoughts But though this be so great yet again what is there in all the vast circumference of the whole world I say what is there although never so small but by a wise and holy heart may be an Object improvable to an excellent use and end As the Art of Chymistry can extract rare and efficacious Remedies out of Dungs Putrefactions and Poysons That Soul must be a pitiful vain and barren piece that wants matter and mind to move and act fruitfully in so large a sphere and compass as Meditation hath It affords the whole latitude of all things properly spiritual And it comprises likewise all other things which in some respect or other wisdom can improve by this rare Art No Artist in any way of Operation with all his rare Instruments and efficacious Engines can operate more eminently than an Artist in this holy kind may do Of this the Scriptures give plentiful proof in the many Precedents left us in it for imitation So we see it in holy David in many of his Psalms besides them of the Word of God his greatest Subject of Meditation in those made of God's great works yea the works of his common Providence and Guidance as the
these acted with the purest enmity keenest malice utmost vigilancy and unwearied diligence He hath the higher ground of us by far as being a Spirit and of the highest rank of Creatures as to his Nature and Essence and is thereby most wise and strong and agile He is immortal never can dye nor in any sort decay as we and other creatures decay in strength senses and exercising of our souls faculties understanding memory and others as he is never dying nor in the least decaying so he hath been is and ever will be to the worlds end trying and tempting Trying and practising upon the innumerable sorts of persons of all Sexes all Ages that are capable in the least degree to be tempted of all ranks conditions relations in all places whatsoever through the vast inhabited earth Job 1.7 He also enlarges his experiences puts still fresh on his file improves continually his arts of deceiving and doth he not grow more bold raging and busie as his time grows shorter Rev. 12.12 Pondered well it should be that 't is not one single Devil to tempt us but there are Legions very many of them and they are all one huge Army of Devils under one great Head The Devil and his Angels Mat. 25.41 Rev. 12.7 His Angels are his assistants which constantly and exactly comply and co-operate with him The Devils never are divided do not jar and act against each other but are all of one interest of destroying Souls and accordingly do harmoniously contend Oft in Scripture mention is made of Satan and the Devil as if he were a single one But this may be to shew their unanimity and unity The Scripture hath sufficiently warned us and related his attempts and prevailings as first upon Adam and Eve in their state of innocency and perfection yet he then though they knew not only their own happiness but all their posterities though never so numerous lay at the stake he then by his Artifices and subtlety prevailed After that upon the second man that ever was upon the deceived Parents first born Cain therefore 1 Joh. 3.12 Cain is said to be of the wicked one and on sundry other wicked all along still the current of time Yea prevailed he often hath upon the very best Saints that ever the world had Job David Peter and others Job 3.1 c. 2 Sam. 24.1 Mat. 26.3 he forbears none Therefore it is very much to be considered and how he is to be watched and warred with and the Armour of proof is to be duly minded and the putting of it on Ephes 6.13 He that hath conquered him the Lord Jesus and that hath conquered him for his members this glorious conquest must be meditated upon as the strongest Cordial in the case and way of taking it the Promise with the way of acting by the Promise Praying and other Ordinances given for our help this need be often a great Meditation 7. That Enemy the World should have its due Meditation Its allurements on the one side its oppositions on the other I must meditate on the diversities of baits the latitudes of Pleasures heights of Honour heaps of Wealth 1 Joh. 2.15 Friends Relations Company Converse Cares Business and all my Lets Diversions Entanglements of all the evils in Troubles Forcings Frauds Plottings and all ways of ensnaring and ruining me Also the World in so many respects being suited either to my natural inclination or my customary readiness for closing with it or otherwise to my fears and cowardise softness and fickleness weakness and weariness to withstand or overcome it Yet I must consider how the Saints have overcome the world by acting as Moses and others their self-denyal looking to the recompence of reward looking to him that is invisible and especially to Jesus the Author and finisher of our Faith and by Faith and Patience both enduring and gloriously overcoming 8. Sometimes I may very fruitfully meditate on the wants and weakness of my Grace begun in some measure 2 Pet. 1.5 it s often ebbings and flowings its stops and stands A little progress at the best my so carnal heart makes also of the extream need I have of continual stirring up and exercising Faith Love Hope Fear and other Graces thereby to grow stronger and put forth vigorously on all occasions minding also the helps I have in Christs holy Ordinances encouragements in the precious promises and supplies by the blessed Spirits operations out of the so great fulness of Christ 9. Oft I should apply my seriousness to that so concerning particular the continual and fast running out of the golden sands of my time and special seasons for working out of my salvation The time is short faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.29 Psal 39.5 Behold thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth Seasons past can never be recall'd seasons present cannot be stopt from running out Opportunity is the greatest Talent as the saying is as that whereby we employ all other Talents Therefore we are so often earnestly call'd upon for redeeming time as Eph. 5.16 Redeeming the time Eccl. 9.10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no work in the Grave c. Though time and seasons as the course of the Heavens may be made to stop if the Sun as in Joshua's time should miraculously stand still Jos 10.13 or as in Hezekiah's time go back Isa â— 8 yet mens particular time then did not go back or stand still so our particular time of life cannot go back or stand still Job 9.25 and 14.1 2. and ver 5. Life every moment shortens and is melting down into its appointed period Life is a thing of the greatest contingency and uncertainty there is no Ensurance Office set up for it It passes swiftly without pause or stop this the Scripture both minds us greatly of and furnishes us with rare precedents of the Saints serious and moving Meditations about it O let me then look on them and do likewise I let me use and improve the patterns purposely there recorded to help and quicken my forgetful dead spirit I next come to speak of the four last things as they commonly are called Death Judgment Hell and Heaven CHAP. XVIII Meditation of Death THE uncertainty of life last mentioned leads me to the subject next akin to it that so considerable and consequential point of Mortality Death and Dissolution O that here I could be the highest Artist to speak most fitly and movingly to this subject Death or at least to do something which might prove effectual to some such proper and proportionate way of directing and quickning this so necessary and useful Meditation This is the great momentous and most highly concerning thing the end and winding up of life and all affairs and matters relating to it and that which casts me and determines my condition for all Eternity in woe or happiness Let me therefore endeavour the best I can at all times to improve my thinkings of it
Warrant for my death at this very instant may be sealing and immediately in a moment put in Execution Ah therefore should I not still daily represent and realize to my heart my own particular coming Death represent it by those frequent Examples the hand of Death brings and sets full before my face to force my Observation The deaths of both strangers to me and familiars with me of near Neighbours dear Friends sweetest Relations bereaving me it may be of the Father that begat me the Mother that bare me the Children of my bowels the Wife of my bosom or the Husband that was my guide and stay or some other very comfortable Relation and so the comfort of any such Relation ceases All Relations are broken by this Bond-breaker this Tie-dissolver Death When I see these thus called away and must be my Relations no more should not I hear my self call'd upon to come away shortly it may be after them O but with these near warnings without me let me take those nearer warnings upon me and within me inevitably still seizing me Let me take those many successive summons given for my own personal change Ah how many are those joggings the hand of Death daily gives me for my awakening into that serious pondering of that death I either seldom or slightly mind How many strokes may I observe Death daily gives at the Root of the Tree making as it were the Chips flye in my face making me smart by Pains Aches Weakness Craziness Failings and Fallings of the spirits and strength and increase of Infirmities by all declaring he is making at me And how many pieces of my house of Clay may I see crumbling and mouldring away now one and then another After the morning of my Age my Sun soon gets up higher soon it is noon afternoon and night with me How soon is the Sun at the height with any in the bright and warm beams of bodily beauty and strength but how impossible is it for to say effectually to it Sun stand thou still and go not down for the least moment How soon appear one way or other the tendencies to death in and upon us Decay in Beauty and Comliness Sometimes yea ordinarily when we are in the Flower presently the Beauty and Comliness begins to blast The best and fairest Face as to the pure White and Red soon either becomes paler or higher coloured after grows darker and deader still one way or other worse As to the feature and curious shape of Face and whole Body soon that likewise changes either by a contraction in leanness and thinness or by an extension in corpulency and grossness Both the curious and rare Colours and Features change warning us of tendency to the last great coming change Or sometimes an intimation is given by the Grinders of our food whereby we live by the decayings still of the Teeth the Teeth which are absolutely the hardest and strongest things about us these so soon decaying as it is in most plainly it demonstrates that the softer and weaker things in and about us and so the whole frame will go at last By this the soon decaying of the bardest pieces Death seems to set his black mark on us we have his mark in the mouth and by their decayings and rottings we touch as it were these his warnings continually with our Tongues thence to mind us of what change is coming For when the Teeth fail the Grinders and Meat Preparers made to fit meat for the stomach this causes the stomach to act less perfectly and on its failing in degree all the dependencies must needs fail in their Offices But if these-Deaths Marks begin not so in some yet how do we find generally some other marks of decay set upon us If Death come not early yet how soon upon most doth he set his mark most observably on the very top of our Houses of Clay bringing forth gray Hairs on the highest part the Head and turning them whiter every day Making the Almond Tree to flourish as Solomon elegantly in Eccl. 12. And in how many Elegancies doth there the Wise man discover and represent rarely the decays of the Body in old age all as demonstrations of Deaths being continually busie about us both to prepare and reduce us to his possession What varieties of warnings are given us in the impairings of this or that Member or of several parts of the Body by sometimes Sores Imposthumes Fistulas Gangrens and parts corrupting shewing a coming dissolution How many mortal Diseases besides others shaking the Houses of our frail Bodies I say incurable Diseases whereby we are told that Death hath us now fast in his hand If not so yet what warnings otherwise are given in the senses beginning to fail as our Sight growing dimmer Hearing duller and in the rest And as in the parts more common so in the noble and principal parts in the Liver Heart Head and others these not performing so perfectly their Offices whence the spirits strength and motion are impaired the Flesh wastes the Skin wrinkles Memory and Vnderstanding likewise decay and appearances of death come all the Body over what are all the forementioned and concurrent decays but a being Death-smitten a coming out full of the Tokens of Death What are all these successions of decays but so many added links of that great Chain Death holds in his hand and draws us to him by All Messengers that have the sound of their Masters feet Death behind them O how exceeding gracious is God in his Multiplications and Connexions of warnings who might smite every Sinner without any notice of death given Therefore as a piece of highest wisdom let me strive to represent the possible suddenness of Deaths sad coming upon me and this by all the ways and inducements I can apply The Examples such as are in Scripture of Abels death Lot's Wife Nadab and Abihu Vzzah Amnon Abner Ananias and Sapphira Herod and others And in History and Experience of so many and so various ways suddenly snatcht away Not a Year or some small portion of time but it furnishes with fresh Examples What hath befallen others may befall me I have no security against sudden death but wheresoever and in whatever time death may seize me If I Travel a Thief may kill me my Horse may throw and kill me the Coach or Carriage I pass in may ruine me on the Water I may there be drowned on the Land and when I am passing in the Streets some casualty may dispatch me at home by some mischance or sudden distemper something at the Table Fire Bed or other place within or without doors some Imposthume Palsey Apoplexy kills or some venomous inward vapour may strike me to the heart Multitudes of Experiences we continually have If not suddenly Death seizes but is a stroke with warning either shorter or longer yet it comes at last in the way and at a time or hour I just know not My best way therefore
is to frequently in my thoughts put my self into the condition of a present dying How it must be with me let me look on my self how certainly without flattery I am prepared to dye If I have a Christ in my bosom the Love of God assured and can dye in the Lord 2 Cor. 13.5 dye in Faith and look Death in the face boldly resign up my soul freely into Christs hands these make for this Agony the highest Cordial these furnish me with Armour of proof against this Enemy But let me then look on my self as having no means farther to preserve me all Physick Art and Experiences withdrawing their usual help Friends standing about me pitying lamenting me but not able to evidence more than their kind wishes and I my self perceiving Deaths summons sent me as to King Hezekiah but without expecting any Messenger after to be sent with better News Prayers now and all such means also reversed and proving labours lost I now feeling my decays and hastening away my disquiets and pains encreasing strength failing spirits sinking heat turned into chillness Cramps contractions of Nerves and limbs following breath shortening speech faultring heart pangs and agonies now multiplying the whole frame of the body shaking the Hands snatching Eye-strings as they say breaking and after many deep heavy sighings and groanings the Soul comes forth with gaspings and sitting upon my quivering lips upon the last gasp takes its nimble flight leaves its old habitation to rottenness and corruption and launches forth into an everlasting new condition Lord teach me so to number my days see how frail I am Psal 90.12 Psal 39.1 let me so often realize this dying to my self in most serious Meditation put my self into this condition of Deaths coming and acting his part his utmost on me that I may both familiarize and facilitate this so dreadful and difficult work that I may be greatly desirous to be dissolved and be thereby with Christ which is best of all O that I may perform this last work best which that I may and make that great Enemy my great Friend my Losses greatest Gain let me still mind Christ's healing this bitter water making it sweet making this Deaths-day better than the Births-day let my thoughts be on the Sting's pulling out that it cannot hurt if I am Christ's Death is ours if we are Christ's and for our most high advantages as being the great outlet of all evil and misery I now shall sin no more be tempted and ensnared no more the World shall now be corruptions bait and Satans Hook no more Satan shall never throw at me any fiery dart more God will never desert me hide his face from me more All Miseries Crosses Losses Poverty Shame Pain Sickness Weakness Weariness Faintness Hunger Thirst Cold Nakedness Labour Toil Cares Fears Sorrows and Disquiets and whatsoever of this lifes Evils can be named is at an Eternal end And Death becomes the great inlet of all good to flow in most abundantly a passage to Heaven to be possest of a Crown of Glory to enjoy the innumerable company of Saints and Angels to be with Christ and seeing God face to face and fulness of felicity for evermore CHAP. XIX Of Judgment after death ON the sad parting of those two dearest friends Soul and Body comes instantly the doom and sentence Heb. 9.27 the particular Judgment of the person to pass and be put in execution to an Eternal Estate either of Happiness or Misery immediately as to the immortal Soul and afterward at the General Resurrection of Body and Soul in Conjunction This therefore little foregoing Day of Judgment upon which by the Bodies mortality and necessity of dying and the Souls immortality and necessity of not dying every person comes to be stated in eternal misery or happiness unavoidably is a point of most high consequence to be well considered deeply weighed often dwelt upon in our most prudent improvements of retiredness A very great frequency and repetition of our best thoughts and serious ponderings must be the Tribute of this concern this vertical point this Judgment which casts the scales and makes full weight for misery or felicity for ever For as the tree falls so it lies as Death leaves Judgment this particular Judgment finds us dooms us irreversibly there is no bringing a Writ of Errour no Appeal to be made no pardon now the Judge will give no petition he will receive no stay of proceedings can in the least be granted or lookt for on any ground This to every particulat person in some respect is his great day of Judgment this disposes and dispatches this secures and keeps me for the great general Assize and Judgment this is the Foundation that will be the Superstructure this is secret that is solemn this for a private execution that for one in open view of all But this Judgment particular strikes the first stroke of utter undoing or lends the first hand of help to an eternal saving and without which the great Judgment doth not proceed Ah then well may I afford this Judgment a great frequency largeness seriousness of thoughts which launches the Ship of my Soul into the Ocean of Eternity which lets my Soul either presently to sink into the Bottomless Pit purposely sends it thither casts it into the Lake of Everlasting Fire or sends it into Abrahams bosom into the harbour of eternal happiness and enters this Jewel into the Cabinet of Heaven Ah how unspeakably considerable is this particular Judgment The very moment of my death that is uncertain and the very next moment after death comes certain Judgment irresistably and irrecoverably and determines our state of Eternity CHAP. XX. Of the general Judgment Day BUT then particular Judgment foregoing this is but the foundation and introduction of the following The private and partial execution on the Soul separate from the Body shall have a publick and most solemn both manifestation and consummation with it 1. This day among other ends is reserved for the so great and glorious manifestation of the infinite holiness and righteousness grace and mercy wrath and severity and other Attributes of God never in this world having their so full discovery as now by the intendment and most wise contrivance of a God they shall have before Angels and Saints Devils and wicked men The Judgment-day Rom. 2.5 is called the day of the Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God of that righteousness that so great and glorious Attribute so little understood less considered so much questioned and cavil'd at the highest declaration and fullest Revelation that ever was shall be then made and seen by all So the rest of Gods Attributes shall obtain their meridian height and shine forth in their most perfect resplendencies Therefore it needs must be a very great day when it is so intended purposely to be the greatest day that ever was or can be 2. It is also purposely constituted for the highest glory of Jesus
The true and sound cure must be well studied Although such as are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24 Quoad animi propositum cordis purificati principium as to the inward living principle and the real heart-purpose initially and gradually in little degree for that which is in no degree begun is not a grain of mustard is nothing at all Though those that are in Christ have crucified as we said their carnal affections in some degree Coming in of Christ and Grace into the heart gives the carnal affections a deadly dash like the taking of some incurable poyson given to kill gradually The first taking gives the advantage for deaths seizing yet this is not enough as experience sadly shews there must be a studying and great pondering how to rule the daily discovered unruliness of the affections and how to cure them which is not the Philosophers way nor the wise moral mans way which is to curb and moderate them but the Scriptures directed and commanded way and therefore the Christians way that he must use and that is to crucifie and mortifie them Col. 3.5 Mortifie your affections that are on the earth The Art and sure way for carnal affections as so and then to study to order these affections which are noble natural plants and dispositions of heart that they may be acted by graces principle on and for things heavenly with a real warmth and a growing fervency 3. Strongly thou must resolve and most exquisitely endeavour to study and meditate for the government of thy will The will in its nature and rank is a most noble faculty the Empress of the soul the spring of action the weight and biass for motion the door that opens and admits in chusing or shuts out in refusing that which sets up the mark and aim every end and interest and likewise makes choice or rejections of the means to the end In its corrupt and carnal state it is the wickedest piece in every person it sets up the greatest Idol in the world Self in the Throne above God Nothing in Scripture hath so great frequent and high complaints and charges brought in by God against it that which is the most hellish and devilish piece in its repugnancy contrariety stoutness and stubbornness against God and whatever is holy and the hellish hold-fast of evil chiefly when it receives the grain-colour and scarlet-tincture of habit by customary sinning In hearts changed by grace it is in a great measure still carnal and accordingly in part hath all the forementioned wickedness and is ready to act it if it be not the better watcht and ordered continually Being then in the best men so evil it needs the best study the most serious and constant Meditation to find the best way for it to rule this unruly will 1. Especially as to base self-aims in which it is the most slippery and soonest swayed hastily burried and entangled 2. And as to the cursed contrariety and hellishness against the Law will ways of God and God himself The Art of ruling this Ruler in chief is well worth thy chiefest Meditation the wretchedness of it will disquiet the pliantness and obedience holiness and purity of its aims choices and refusals will comfort most as carrying highest evidences of thy sincerity 4. Meditation hath great need to act its part industriously and accurately as to know how to govern the tongue that rare instrument called by David Psal 188.1 his glory But by sin called by the Apostle Jam. 3.8 An unruly member full of deadly poyson that sets on fire the course of nature is set on fire of Hell vers 6. David prays for a watch before his mouth Psal 39.1 I said I will take heed that I sin not with my tongue and keeping his mouth with a bridle To refrain evil words requires care to refrain vain and idle words requires a curiosity and exactness Study this Art not as Pythagoras the Philosophers Scholars that had their quinquennium silentium first spent five years in his School to learn silence but all a mans life is too little But there 's more to be learnt than just silence and that is savouriness of speaking Prov. 10.20 The tongue of the just is as choice silver the heart of the wicked is little worth then and therefore the tongue of the wicked is little worth because the heart out of whose abundance the mouth speaketh is little worth Study the Art of savoury speaking by getting three things 1. A good treasure in thy heart 2. A wisdom to discern times of speaking 3. A true godly humble boldness to speak and not be ashamed Psal 119.46 I will speak of thy testimonies before Kings and will not be ashamed Meditate for the true Scripture-way for speaking 5. Meditate how as to fill up with heart-beauties of graces within knowledge wisdom holiness and every particular grace so to have a fruitful shining exemplary conversation suitable to thy rank and station in Christianity How to walk worthy of the Lord to all well-pleasing Col. 1.11 To all fruitfulness in every good work in all conditions and in all relative duties as husband or wife parent or child master or servant and the rest It is hard to be good indeed harder to be growing better hard to become and suit a change in condition never under before hard to come up to relative duties and be Christian in them and so good as a well-grown Christian should be Some are very heedless here they too little mind a proportionate growth herein as in other parts of godliness but this must be minded Meditate universal growing how to honour thy longer standing in godliness by shooting up and spreading out more 6. Lastly Make it thy great study how to have suitably to thy rank in godliness a richer treasury and stock of experiences useful and rare experiences for thy own and others advantage make Meditation a great observer a diligent gatherer a careful layer up of experiences choice and precious to have a large treasury to bring out of it new and old CHAP. XXI Directions to Christians of the uppermost Rank 3. FOr such as are Christians of the highest form in Christs School such the Apostle in this 1 Joh. 2.13 calls Fathers not for their long living here or being long Christians visible Members of the Church as for great growth and improvement in real godliness much Knowledge Wisdom Experience Faith Love and Eminencies of Christianity their Meditation like the highest Artists must be acted higher 1. The Meditation of such as are fathers should carry higher in all the ways and concerning all the several points and particulars formerly exprest and relating to all persons in general in all the sorts of Meditation 1. In the daily Meditation to be more eminently exercised and constant in drawing out a thread of far exacter evenness and equality without such frequent breakings off and inconstancies that younger Christians more unprincipled and