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-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-Sabbath-day duties for it is the very Quintessence the life and soul of all duty the sabbath-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-days are especially to be 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
thy children if thou hast any thy estate all that thou hast recommend them unto thy God shut up all with a sweet resignation of thy self and all thy affairs and all thy ways As David saith Commit your ways unto the Lord commit your selves and your affairs all that you are all that you have into the hands of the Lord as a faithful Creator and a merciful Redeemer I would have you close up all with a committing and a submitting committing thy ways unto God submitting unto God in all his ways purposing to live to his glory and to walk worthy of that heavenly calling to which thou art called And thus I have put an end to this subject of Divine Meditation Now what remains but to perswade you to the practise of these things That which a learned man who hath written a Tract called The art of Divine Meditation closeth his Book withal let me close this with saith he Oh that my words were as so many gourds to quicken up the dead and dull and drousie hearts of Christians to a conscientious practice of this excellent duty of Divine Meditation It is a strange speech that he useth saith he I will give any man leave to curse me upon his death-bed if he doth not then acknowledg that those hours that he hath spent in Divine Meditation have been the best hours that he hath spent in all his life if he doth not then confess he is sorrowful that he spent no more hours in so blessed a work Sure I am when you lye upon your death-bed this will be your comfort Lord I have been often in Heaven in Meditation and now I am going to that place that I am acquainted withal Oh my God! I have been often with thee in the Mount I have been often meditating of thee Oh my blessed Saviour thou art no stranger to me I have been often meditating of Christ. Oh what comfort will this be to you when you lye upon your death-beds I will not say curse me if you do not find this true but I will say this is as sure as the Word of God is true you will find it so There are four things I will conclude this Discourse withal 1. I would humbly beseech you that you would mourn before God that you have lived so many years in the School of Christ and have been no more acquainted with this duty of Divine Meditation I believe there are very many that have been long standers in Christ's School that never yet practised this duty of Divine Meditation that never were half an hour together in the Mount of God solemnly and seriously Now I beseech you mourn before the Lord that we have been no more acquainted with this blessed and heavenly duty 2. Let us mourn before the Lord that we have misplaced our meditation for the heart of man is restless it is like the weight of a Clock that will never leave going down as long as it is wound up the heart of man will always be meditating of something or other like mill-stones if they once grind they will grind one another the heart of man will always be grinding always musing always meditating on something or other Now mourn before God heartily and go into your Closets and bemoan it that you have ground chaff to your immortal souls all your lives long that you have spent your days in meditating what to eat and what to drink and what to be clothed withal and how to grow rich and how to manage your trading and your calling how to thrive in the world how to get such preferments you have been meditating all your lives long upon vain things and have not meditated upon the things of eternity those things that do most concern you you have been meditating upon trifles upon things that will not profit at the hour of death and forgot to meditate of those things that are of eternal concernment our Saviour Christ complains of those men Mat. 6. Take no thought for your lives what you shall eat and what you shall drink nor for your body what you shall put on as if he should say why do you spend all your time in taking thought of eating and drinking and clothing and outward things Which of you saith he can by taking thought add one cubit to your stature All your musing and meditating of them is vain Can a Dwarf by thinking he is a Dwarf make himself taller it is not all your musing and your meditating of these outward things I mean your inordinate meditating will advantage you I grant Tradesmen must have time to meditate of worldly things I will not lay heavier burdens than the Scripture doth lay but when you ravel away all your time in meditating upon earthly things and never are serious in the Meditation of heavenly things this I would have you mourn for you that are old people and have been many years professors of Religion Oh mourn that you have wasted your intellectual faculty that you have wasted that glorious faculty of soul your understanding in such vain and trifling things nay are there not some that do not only meditate of vain things but spend many hours in meditating on vile things that devise mischief upon their beds and meditate how to cozen their neighbours how to be revenged upon their neighbour how to do mischief how to compass about their wicked designs are there not some that meditate to do evil and rejoice in the meditation of evil when they have done it Many old men meditate with joy of their youthful vanities and wickedness committed in their youth they chew over their wicked ways with delight which we call contemplative wickedness Oh let us bewail and bemoan it before God that we have squandered away our immortal souls by exercising the glorious faculty of the understanding in such poor trifling things it may be lustful revengeful vile wicked thoughts either in doing that which is evil or in meditating on the evil we have done instead of mourning for it rejoicing in it 3. I would perswade you to study the necessity the excellency the usefulness and profitableness of Divine Meditation let me tell you for the conclusion this duty is not only a duty but the quintessence and marrow of all other duties there is no duty will take impression upon your souls without the practise of this duty it is the very life and soul of Christianity without which a Christian is but the carcass of a Christian. I have shewed that the want of Divine Meditation is the cause of all sin and all punishment I have shewed you that the practise of Meditation will help to beget Grace and increase Grace and resist the Devil and all his temptations 4. Let me perswade you all that you would put this duty in practise especially you that are rich people Gentlemen Merchants and others you that have estates you that are Gentlemen may spare time from your sports and you that are rich Merchants and others may take time from your outward occasions O let me intreat you that you would take some spare-time every day to go up to the Mount of God to meditate of some of those Subjects that I have propounded to you whether it be Death or Hell or Heaven or Iudgment or Sin or Christ or God or the vanity of the world whatsoever the Subject is that is holy and heavenly I will not lay burdens upon you I know there may be such occasions that you cannot but ordinarily that you would as often as you can make conscience to accustom your selves to this necessary and long-neglected duty of Divine Meditation Let me tell you you would be tall Christians in grace if you did accustom your selves to this duty the reason why you are such Dwarfs in Christianity and so unacquainted with God and the Promises and Christ and Heaven is for the want of the practice of this duty this is the reason why you creep upon the ground and are so poor in Grace and so lean in Religion Therefore let me intreat you especially you whose happiness is that you need not work every day to provide for your families the Lord hath given you an estate and you may spare time Oh let it not be said at the day of Iudgment that you lost Heaven for the want of the practising this duty of Divine Meditation And then you that are poor people and cannot find time you that are Servants and Apprentices that have not time remember what I said concerning Occasional Meditation I shewed you how you might meditate when you were about your worldly business there is no lawful calling that a man can be in but if he hath a heavenly heart he may heavenlize that calling he may take occasion as Christ takes occasion to heavenlize his Discourse from outward things to raise Heavenly Discourse when thou art at work thou maist be by Divine Meditation in Heaven But let me perswade you all on the Sabbath-day though you have not time on the week-day for set solemn Meditation yet then you have time for occasional Meditation for on the Sabbath all your work ceaseth that is the day that God hath set a part for publick service and private Meditation Meditation on the work of Creation and the work of Redemption it is a great work we are to do upon the day of our rest to meditate of our Eternal Rest in Heaven therefore let me perswade you to spend some time on the Sabbath-day upon Meditation but especially on the Sacrament-days There are Twelve Meditations I propounded to meditate on upon the Sacrament and I chose this Subject to help you with Sacramental Meditation it hath pleased God to carry me out further in the handling of it than ever I thought The Lord give a Blessing to it FINIS
doing of the duty that God looks after as the right manner of doing the duty It is not the hearing the Word will please God unless we hear the word of God aright therefore Christ saith take heed how you hear it is not prayer that will prevail with God unless we pray after a right manner unless we pray in faith with fervency and humility so it is not the meditation of God and Christ and the Promises will do us any good unless we meditate after the right manner that God would have us to meditate Now I shall acquiant you with six properties of Divine Meditation for the right manner of performing it 1. Divine Meditation must be often and frequent Deut. 6. 7. there God commands Thou shall teach the words of the Law diligently unto thy children thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up Josh. 1. 8. The book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night Though he was a great Commander and had affairs of great concernment yet God commands him to meditate day and night in the Law of God And David tells us of a godly man Psal. 1. 2. That he will delight himself in the law of God and in his law will he meditate day and night Psal. 119. 97 98 99. David professeth of himself though he was a King and had many diversions yet saith he Oh how do I love thy law it is my meditation day and night Thou through thy commandments hath made me wiser than my enemies for they are ever with me or it is ever with me speaking of the Commandments of God he had them always in his thoughts I have more understanding than all my teachers for thy testimonies are my meditation Psal. 139. 8. When I awake I am still with thee What is the meaning of that that is by the meditation of God in the morning as soon as ever he awaked he begun the day with Meditation with some sweet pious thought of God It is the duty of a Christian as you have heard if it be possible if his worldly occasions do not necessarily hinder him there may you know be necessary avocations to spend some time every day in Divine Meditation You that are Ladies men of great Estates and have time are to set some solemn time some solemn part of the day for Meditation but all of us are to have Ejaculatory Meditation though it be in our worldly business There are three Reasons to perswade you to frequent Meditation 1. Because the oftner you meditate of God and Christ and Heaven the more you will know of God and Christ and Heaven and the more you will love God and Christ and the more earnestly you will seek after the things of Heaven for you must know the things of Heaven are like a beautiful Picture the more you view them the more will you admire them and seek after them to enjoy them I have read a story of Necrasophus who was an excellent Painter that viewing wistly a Picture there came a Country-man by and seeing him view that Picture so wistly he asked him Why do you look upon that Picture so much saith the Painter to him If you had my eyes you would never ask me this Question if you knew the excellency of this Picture you would never ask me why I look so much upon it The things of Heaven the things of God the Promises of God are most glorious and excellent things and the more you look into them the more you will look into them and the oftenr you view these Pictures the more you will admire them and the more you will view them God and Christ and Heaven are like unto a bottomless Mine of treasure the more you dig in this Mine the more riches you will find in it they are like unto a sweet cordial the more you chew them the more sweetness you will find in them They are like an excellent garden in the Spring-time the oftner a man goes into the garden still he finds a new flower and another flower and another flower so the things of God and Christ and the Promises and Heaven the more you walk in this garden the more flowers you will gather you will have still new flowers to pick. And the reason why the Saints of God love God no more and prize Christ no more and seek no more after Heaven is because they do not meditate more of God and Christ and Heaven the want of frequent meditation of them is the reason why we love them and esteem them so little and seek so little after them The second Reason why we should frequently meditate upon things Divine is because the oftner we meditate of God and Christ the more near and intimate acquaintance we shall have with them as you know Neighbours the oftner they visit one another the more acquainted they come one with another and the seldomer they visit one another the more estranged they are one to another Visitation breeds acquaintance so the seldomer you think of God and Christ the more you are estranged from them and the less acquaintance you have with them and the oftner you meditate of God the more intimate society you will have with him as I have told you Divine Meditation is nothing else but a dwelling upon the things of God a conversing with God and Christ and the Promises and it will be matter of rare comfort to a child of God when he lies upon his death-bed and is going out of the world to consider I am now going to a God that I am acquainted withal that I am not a stranger to I am going to heaven where I have been often in my meditation It is reported of Dr. Preston when he was dying he used these words Blessed be God though I change my place yet I shall not change my company for I have walked with God while I lived and now I go to rest with God A man that is often in meditation is often in Heaven often walking with God and Christ and the Promises and when he dies he goes to enjoy the Promises and to be and to live for ever with this Christ. It is a sad and a disconsolate thing for a man when he comes to die to think of God as a stranger to think of Heaven as a place where he hath never been he hath hardly had a thought of it all his life I verily perswade my self it is one reason that the Saints of God are so unwilling to die because they have no more acquaintance with God in this life they think of him as a stranger the more you are acquainted with God while you live the more willing you will be to die to go to him for death to a child of God is nothing else but a resting with God with whom he walked while
he lived to rest in the bosom of God in whose bosom he hath often been by holy meditation when he was alive 3. You must be often and frequent in the duty of Divine Meditation by often using it to make it more easie there is great complaint of the difficulty of this duty it hath been often said to me Sir there is no duty in the world so hard as Divine Meditation and it is true it is a hard matter to keep the heart close in Meditation of Divine things and therefore you must accustom your selves to this duty and use will make perfectness usus promptos facit by often doing it at last through grace it will become easie When a young youth is bound Prentice to a Manual Trade at first it seems very hard to learn his Trade but by long custom at last he is very expert in it A man that is to go up a hill every morning at first he pants and breathes and cannot get up the hill within a little while he can get up with ease so this duty of Divine Meditation though it be exceeding difficult because it is exceeding spiritual yet by often and frequent practising of it through the assistance of Gods Spirit it will become at last very easie whereas the seldomness of the practice of this duty makes it difficult and intermission of any thing makes it very hard A man that learns the Greek or Hebrew Tongues or learn to speak French if he intermit the speaking eleven or twelve years he will quickly forget to speak it so long omission of this duty is the reason why it is so difficult would you but resolve to practise it for one twelve month you would find it at the twelve months end an easie duty through the help of God The second property is this Divine Meditation must be solemn and serious though we must accustom our selves to this duty yet we must take heed of customariness and formality in the duty formality in good duty is the dead fly that spoils the box of precious ointment God hates a formal Christian he hates a formal prayer a formal hearer of the word formality in Gods service is like the plague of locusts of which you read Exod. 10. that did eat up all the green things in the land formality in good duties eats up all the beauty and all the comfort and benefit of a good duty there is nothing God hates more than formality in his service therefore you must take heed above all things of being formal in the practice of this duty of Meditation it must be solemn and serious and you must be very intent about it slight thoughts of God will make but a slight impression upon the affections and he that thinks slightly of God will serve him slightly and love him slightly he that thinks slightly of sin will slight sin he that thinks slightly of God God will slight him And the reason why we serve God with so little affection and so little devotion and reverence is because we meditate slightly of God for slight thoughts of God work but a slight heart and a slight conversation I will give you an instance or two of this slight way of Meditation Ioh. 6. you shall read of certain men that when Christ was preaching had a very good ejaculation ver 34. Lord say they evermore give us of this bread it was a sweet Meditation but it was but a short a slight and formal one for at the end of the Chapter these men forsook Christ it was not a solemn and serious Meditation Ioh. 18. 38. you read of Pilate Pilate saith unto him what is truth here is a good question that arose from some inward thought that he had and when he had said this he went out again he never thought of it more he never tarried to hear an answer but now our care must be to be very solemn and serious in this work of Divine Meditation let me give you an example of Alexander the Great a Heathen man was offering Sacrifice to his God the Priest that held the Censor the Chafing-dish wherein the Incense was there was a spark of fire fell upon his hand and he was so intent and unwilling to hinder the Sacrifice that he suffered his hand rather to be burnt than he would intermit the Sacrifice this shews how devout and intent this Priest was even in the service of the Heathenish God and Chrysostome tells a story of a Lady that being to make a precious ointment she calls in all her handmaids to help her so saith he when we converse with God in any holy duty we must call in all our handmaids all our affections when we are making any holy ointment the meaning is this when you are conversing with God by meditation or conversing with Christ or the Promises you must call in all your affections to assist you you must be very solemn and serious and intent upon this work And yet I must give you one caution here you must take heed you be not over-intent though you must be serious you must not be over-serious I have heard a story of a godly Minister Mr. Welsh that was one day meditating of eternity and he was so serious in the thoughts of Eternity that he fell into a trance into a swound that they could hardly ever recover life in him again he was so swallowed up in that Meditation he was too serious we must be serious but not over-serious we must do as good travellers do that will be careful not to over-ride their horses lest they tire they will ride moderately that so they may hold out to their journeys end so must we be serious but we must be moderate not over-serious we must remember we have a body of flesh that is not able to bear over-much seriousness in these weighty Meditations of Eternity and God and Christ and Heaven 3. Divine Meditation must not only be notional and speculative but practical and affectionate therefore consideration and meditation are not only acts of the head but acts of the heart Deut. 4. 39. Know therefore this day and consider it in thy heart There are three doors as I may so speak that Meditation must get into or else it is of no use 1. It must get into the understanding that must ponder the things of Heaven but it must not tarry there But 2. It must get into the door of the heart and affections to stir them up for the understanding must be as a Divine pair of Bellows to kindle a Divine fire in the heart and affections and to inflame and raise them up as David saith Psal. 39. While I was musing the fire burned we must so muse upon God and Christ that our affections may as it were burn within us as the Disciples hearts burnt within them while Christ was speaking 3. It must get into the door of the conversation that is we must so meditate of Christ as to live according to