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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	day_n	keep_v	sabbath_n	2,898	5	9.9995	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31893	The art of divine meditation, or, A discourse of the nature, necessity, and excellency thereof with motives to, and rules for the better performance of that most important Christian duty : in several sermons on Gen. 24:63 / by Edmund Calamy ...	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1680 (1680)	Wing C227; ESTC R952	107,034	224

practise of this duty be not always like Martha troubled with this and that business but remember Maries choice who chose the better part in attending upon Christ's Ministry I would have all rich men every day think of that Text Luk. 12. 20. Thou fool this night shall thy soul be taken from thee and what then will become of all thy possessions I confess God doth not require this at the hand of the daily labourer or at the hands of servants that are not masters of their own time and those that are very poor and are not able to set time apart for Meditation But you may remember I gave you a distinction between Ejaculatory Meditation and solemn Meditation a poor man when he is at his work may have a short Ejaculatory Meditation though he hath not time for this set and solemn meditation when he is at his work he may meditate upon the Promises and of Heaven and of Hell and of Death and Iudgment and the vanity of the world I have heard of a godly man was wont to say I thank God I can be in heaven in the midst of the croud of Cheapside I can meditate on the Rest I shall have in the other world 3. The third Direction is this The Sabbath-day especially is a day wherein all sorts of people are to busie themselves in this excellent work of Divine Meditation this is a day wherein the labourer ceaseth from his work the Plowmans yoke is taken off and the labouring-man and the serving man have their rest therefore it concerns all of us to spend some time every Sabbath-day in Meditation to meditate of the work of Creation or Redemption for the Lords-day is so called because Christ rose on that day and Christ set apart that day in memory of his Resurrection in memory of his Redemption therefore this is thy work Oh Christian not only to come to the publick Ordinances not only to pray in thy family but to set some time apart for Divine Meditation and the Lord forgive us this sin that we have omitted this duty so long Oh that I could be Gods instrument that there might be a resurrection of it that you would make conscience of it every Sabbath-day as you make conscience of attending upon publick and private duties so you would put this as one of your Sabbath-day duties for it is the very Quintessence the life and soul of all duty the Sabbath-day is a type of the eternal Sabbath which we shall keep for ever in Heaven and shall not I think of my eternal Sabbath upon the Sabbath shall not I be much in Heaven when I am keeping a rest upon earth that represents my eternal rest in Heaven let us upon our day of rest meditate much upon our eternal rest Oh let us upon our sabbath-Sabbath-day meditate upon the everlasting Sabbath which we shall keep with God Almighty the Father Son and Holy Ghost for ever in Heaven 4. And last Direction is this That sacrament-Sacrament-days are especially to be meditating-meditating-days to be set apart for this great work of Divine Meditation it is the great end why Christ hath appointed the Sacrament to shew forth the Lords-death till he come and saith Christ Do this in remembrance of me There are two things make us worthy receivers of the Sacrament Preparation before we come and Meditation when we are come and though thy Preparation be never so serious yet if thou dost not act aright in thy Meditation as well as thou hast done in thy Preparation thou maist lose the benefit of the Sacrament Now if any should ask me What are those things you would have us to meditate of when we are come unto the Sacrament or when we are at the Sacrament There are twelve Meditations which ought to take up our Sacramental-time which I call twelve common-place-heads I do not say we can meditate upon all of them at one Sacrament but my design is to give you matter sufficient that you may sometimes meditate of one sometimes of another I will but name them 1. You must meditate of the great and wonderful love of God the Father in giving Christ not only to die for us upon the Cross but in giving him to be our food at the Sacrament there was nothing moved God to give Christ but pure love and great love For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son So how so infinitely so inexpressibly the love of God in bestowing Christ is so great that the Angels desire to look into it And you that are not affected with this love I fear you have little share in it That is enough to take up one Sacrament 2. You are to meditate at the Sacrament not only of the love of the Father in giving of his Son but of the love of Christ in giving himself Ephes. 5. 2. Who loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour As God gave Christ so Christ gave himself as God gave himself as man the Godhead infused this will into the Manhood that Christ willingly laid down his life Ioh. 10. 17 18. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again no man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up this commandment have I received of my Father Now the love of Christ in giving himself to be a curse for us is a love that passeth knowledg yet it is a love that we must study to know It is a riddle but such a riddle as the Apostle himself doth in so many express words declare unto us Ephes. 3. 19. That we may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heigth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg Great is the love of Christ which passeth knowledg great is the love of Christ in dying for us and being made sin for us and being made a curse for us 3. We must meditate of the heinousness of sin when we were all fallen in Adam we were ingulphed into such a bottomless abyss of misery that none but the blood of a God could deliver us for there was an infinite breach by sin between God and us and this breach could never be made up but by the blood of God That is a rare meditation at the Sacrament to meditate of the heinousness of sin when you see the bread broken it was sin that caused Christs body to be broken and when you see the wine poured out it was sin caused Christs blood to be poured out it was sin that caused Christ to suffer so much 4. You must meditate of the excellency of this Sacramental feast for the Sacrament is a commemorative Sacrifice it is a commemoration of that blessed Sacrifice that was offered on the Cross for our sins and it is an obsignation

Principles not being able to hold out in meditation to keep themselves from wandring thoughts read in the Bible this in it self is not sinful but this is not sutable nor proper for certainly the proper way of meditation at the Sacrament is to be raised up in the Sacramental Elements the Sacramental actions the Sacramental promises and therefore thou must make the whole Sacramental frame and carriage to be thy Bible at the Sacrament and learn to be raised up by that to Heavenly Meditation The fifth Particular in order is the Materials of Meditation and here I am to shew you what are those Divine Truths that we are to meditate upon this is a subject of large comprehension for the truth is there is no divine object but it doth deserve our serious meditation Give me leave to make you a Common-place-book of Divine Meditation I will lay down some heads of Divinity that a Christian ought to spend his life in meditating upon sometimes upon one of them sometimes upon another of them as for example he that would avoid all sin and thrive in all godliness must meditate frequently and seriously of Death of Iudgment of Heaven and Hell these are called quatuor Novissima the four last things 1. You must meditate of death now I will not shew you how you should go about to meditate of death but I will give you some heads to help you 1. You must meditate of the certainty of death there is nothing so certain as that thou must die 2. You must meditate of the uncertainty of death there is nothing so uncertain as the time when we must die death comes certainly and death comes uncertainly death comes suddenly there is no Almanack can tell you when your death shall come your Almanacks will tell you when the next Eclypse of the Sun and Moon will be but they will not tell you when the eclypse of your lives shall be And death comes irresistibly it comes like pain upon a woman in travel it comes like an armed Giant that will not be resisted when it comes 3. You must meditate concerning your fitness for death whether thou hast got thy graces thy evidences ready for death whether thou art a wise Virgin or a foolish Virgin whether thou hast got oyl into thy lamp or no 4. You must meditate concerning death how you may so live as to be above the hurt of death that death might be an out-let to all misery and an in-let to all happiness 5. You must meditate how to live in continual expectation of and continual preparation for death 6. You must especially meditate how to be free from the slavish fear of death there are many of Gods children that live all their lives long under the bondage of the fear of death and it is the excellency of a Christian to meditate how to be above the hurt and fear of death and for that purpose you must look upon death with Scripture-spectacles you must look upon death as the going from the prison of this life to the palace of Heaven as disarmed by Christ as perfumed by Christ as a Serpent without a sting as a passage to eternal life Thus you see how you must meditate of Death 2. You must meditate of the day of Iudgment 1. You must meditate of the terribleness of the day of Judgment it is called the terror of the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 11. It is called by the ancient Fathers the great and terrible day of Iudgment In which Iesus Christ will come in flaming fire to render vengeonce upon all those that know him not 2. You must meditate of the great assizes that will be kept at that day in which all the men and women and children that ever have lived since Adam's time to the end of the world shall all appear before the Tribunal-seat of Jesus Christ. 3. You must meditate of the great account you are to give to God at that day the strict the exact the particular account it is a day in which we must answer for all our idle words for all our idle thoughts in which all our secret sins shall be made manifest 4. You must meditate of the great separation that shall be made at that day when the goats shall be placed on the left hand and the sheep on the right hand there will be a perfect separation In this life goats and sheep are mingled together but at that day there will not be one sheep on the left nor one goat on the right hand 5. You must meditate of the happy condition of a child of God at that great and terrible day of Iudgment it shall be a day of his Coronation in which he shall be crowned with glory and immortality it shall be a day of salvation to him 6. You must meditate of the cursed condition of an ungodly man at the day of Iudgment it shall be a day of perdition and everlasting destruction to him 3. You must meditate of Heaven 1. You must meditate of the joys of Heaven that are so great that eye never saw nor ear heard nor ever can it enter into the heart of man to conceive the greatness of them 2. You must meditate sometimes of the Beatifical Vision of the blessed sight of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and of the happiness that that soul shall enjoy that is admitted to that blessed sight for because God is infinitely perfect and all perfection is in God whosoever is admitted to the sight of God beholds and enjoys all things in God 3. You must meditate of the perfection of the happiness of Heaven 4. You must meditate of the perpetuity of the happiness of Heaven there you shall have fulness of joy and pleasures at the right hand of God for evermore 5. You must meditate of your fitness for heaven whether you are made meet and fit to partake of that glorious inheritance you must meditate whether God hath sent Heaven down into thee for no man shall ever go up to Heaven but Heaven must first come down to him you must meditate whether that Christ that hath prepared Heaven for thee hath prepared thee for Heaven 6. You must meditate what you must do that you may be meet to go to Heaven how you may lead your lives so that you may be sure at last to obtain Heavens eternity 4. You must meditate of Hell as Bernard saith you must go often down into hell by your meditation while you live and you shall be sure not to go down to hell when you die Descendamus vivenles non descendemus morientes as Chrysostome saith excellently if the not thinking of Hell would free you from Hell I would never have you think of hell but whether you think of it or no Hell-fire burns and your not thinking of it will bring you thither And the reason why so many go to Hell when they die is because they do not think of Hell while they live 1. You must study the

case is thy soul now that is on the Sea of this world and then to go to the Ensuring-office you know you have your Ensuring-offices wherein you ensure your Ships at Sea to get your souls ensured by reconciliation with God and by true faith manifested by holiness and righteousness to get your souls assured that they may come safe to the haven of Happiness In a clear bright frosty Winter-night when thou goest out and beholdest the bespangled heaven multitude of bright Stars what a rare thing were it to meditate This glorious bespangled Firmament is but the stable as it were but the out-houses of that Heaven where I am to go it is but the outward Court but the Wash-house as I may say and if the Stable and Out-houses be so glorious Oh what is the inward palace above the spangled Heavens is my Fathers house where I hope to live for ever with God and there my Christ is now interceding for me and by the power of his Spirit shall I be brought one day to that house Oh when will that time come when will my soul mount thorough these Heavens into the heaven of Heavens Now is not this comely for a Christian will not this heavenlize you and spiritualize you And then when you go to bed at night to remember I have one day more to answer for to remember there will a last night come after which there will be no day but the Resurrection of all Remember thy last night thy concluding night the end of thy life But I have been over-long in this a great deal more than I thought but I do it because here I shall put an end to this discourse of occasional meditation There is a second sort of Meditation and that is that that I call set solemn and deliberate when a man sets apart an hour a day it may be sets a part some time and goes into a private Closet or a private Walk and there doth solemnly and deliberately meditate of the things of Heaven Now concerning this meditation I shall handle by Gods assistance these two Particulars 1. I will shew you the nature of it 2. I will shew you the necessity of it 1. The nature of this duty what this meditation is that I would press you to I will describe it in two Particulars 1. This holy meditation is a dwelling and abiding upon things that are holy it is not only a knowing of God and a knowing of Christ but it is a dwelling upon the things we know as the Bee that dwells and abides upon the flower to suck out all the sweetness that is in the flower so to meditate upon God and Christ and the Sacrament it is to dwell upon God and the Sacrament to suck out all the sweetness we can in the things we meditate upon As we read of Anna Luk. 2. 37. She continued in the Temple praying and fasting day and night To meditate is to continue and fix our selves and our hearts upon the things we know this meditation in Scripture is called a holy musing Psal. 39. 3. My heart was hot within me while I was musing to meditate is to muse or else it is to commune with our own hearts Psal. 4. Stand in awe and sin not commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still It is a communing a consulting with our own hearts or if you will it is a bethinking our selves so it is expressed 1 King 8. 47. If they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captive and repent The Hebrew word is if they shall bring back to their hearts if they shall reflect upon themselves for meditation is a reflecting act of the soul whereby the soul is carried back to it self and considers all the things that it knows Meditation is an inward act of the soul a spiritual act whereby the soul doth recoil upon it self and looks back upon it self and considers all the things that concern its everlasting happiness and if I be not mistaken it is rarely typified under the Law two manner of ways 1. By those beasts that did chew the cud you shall read Lev. 11. of the clean beasts and the unclean beasts now the clean beasts were such as did chew the cud of those they were to eat now the unclean beasts were those that did not chew the cud a meditating Christian is one that chews the cud that chews on the Truths of Jesus Christ that doth not only hear good things but when he hath heard them chews them over ruminates upon them that so they may be fitter for digestion and concoction and spiritual improvement an unclean Christian is one that doth not chew the cud that doth not ruminate and ponder and bethink himself of the things of Heaven 2. Another type of this rare grace of Meditation is that of the Beasts Ezek. 1. that Ezekiel saw that had eyes within and without Vers. 18. their wings were full of eyes round about them And so likewise the Beasts Rev 4. 6. Round about the Throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind A notable and a rare type of Meditation for meditation is nothing else but a looking thoroughly into the things of God a looking before and behind as I may so speak a meditating Christian is a man full of eyes that doth not only know God but sees much of God There is another metaphor to express it Psal. 119 59. I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies The word in the Hebrew is taken from Chapmen that when they buy a commodity they turn it over and over and over again they look all about it into every part of it Meditation is a thorow contemplation and a thorow consideration of the things of God a meditating Christian is full of eyes full of heavenly understanding 2. It is an act of the heart as well as of the head it is not only a speculative knowledg of things Divine but a practical knowledg it is not only an act of the intellect and understanding but of the will and affections it is an affective grace as well as an intellective grace and therefore it is said of the Blessed Virgin Mary She pondered all these sayings in her heart she did not only think of them with her head but she pondered on them with her heart and you shall read Deut. 4. 39. Know therefore this day and consider it in thy heart A true meditation is when a man doth so meditate of Christ as to get his heart inflamed with the love of Christ so meditate of the Truths of God as to be transformed into them and so meditate of sin as to get his heart to hate sin when it is such a musing of God as kindles a fire in the whole soul as David doth express it Psal. 39. 3. While I was musing the fire burnt When a man doth so contemplate on God that his heart is all on fire with the love of God