a man that is ambitious you need not perswade him to think of honour and preferment but the love that he hath to preferment will force him to think of it So did you love God Christ Heavenly things you would be much in the meditation of them And the reason why you meditate no more of them is because you love them no more Psal. 119. 97. Oh how do I love thy law what then it is my meditation all the day What made David meditate all the day upon the Law of God because he loved it Psal. 1. 7. But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night A man that is deep in love with a woman you need not bid him think of that woman Where the love is there the soul is Oh did you delight in the things of Heaven I need not lay down rules to perswade you to the practise of it the very love would be a loadstone love is a loadstone of Meditation and he that loves good things will think of them Cogitatione crebra cogitatione longa cogitatione profunda that is very often very long and very deep a man that is deep in love is deep in meditation of the party he loves The seventh Rule Labour to get an interest in Heavenly things labour by Scripture-evidences to make out thy interest in Heavenly things what comfort can that man have of meditating of Heaven that doth not know he hath a right to Heaven what comfort can that man have of meditating of Christ that doth not know that Christ is his what comfort can that man have in meditation of God that looks upon God as his enemy It is interest that will facilitate Divine Meditation a man that hath an interest in an inheritance will often think of it if he hath a thousand pound a year that is his own he is often thinking how to improve it and enjoy it but if he hath no title or right to it alas he will not think of it what doth he care for it It is your interest in the things of Heaven that will raise your meditation of them and as long as you have no assurance of a title to Heaven you will never heartily meditate of it you may know it by rote and by form but you will never heartily meditate of it till you know it to be your inheritance and you will never heartily meditate of the Promises till you know you have a title to them that they are Promises made to you The eighth Rule is this Labour to get a heart disengaged and disintangled from the world a man that is dead and buried in the world it is in vain to perswade him to go up the mount of Meditation a bird that is in a Lime-twig it is in vain to bid that bird fly alas poor bird she is intangled in the Lime-twig a man that is intangled in the lime-twigs of the world it is in vain to bid this man mount up in Meditation The love of the world is like the plague of flies that Pharoah had in Egypt he could not eat a bit of meat but the flies got into his meat and got into his drink so a man that is up to the ears in the world cannot pray cannot hear a Sermon and cannot receive the Sacrament but this plague of flies comes there the thoughts of the world is at the Sacrament with him in Prayer with him on the Sabbath-day with him The love of the world pray pardon me in this expression is just like a familiar spirit for indeed I cannot speak too much against it a Witch that hath a familiar spirit it will go along with her wheresoever she goes when she hath once entertained it she can never be rid of it but the Devil will haunt her so the love of the world is an invisible Devil and will haunt you wheresoever you go if you go to the Sacrament there the Devil will haunt you if you go to the mount of Meditation the Devil and the world will be there if you go to pray there the Devil will be And you that are in these lime-twigs it is in vain to preach to you the Doctrine of Divine Meditation and therefore let me speak to you as God did to Moses Put the shooes off thy feet for the place whereon thou stands is holy ground So do I say if ever you would be qualified for this duty of Divine Meditation put the shooes off your feet You must labour to be mortified to the world and worldly things you must labour to get a Heavenly frame of spirit it is in vain to perswade a worldly man to meditate of Heavenly things I do but beat the air for such as the heart is such will the man be if the heart be lustful the man will meditate of lustful things and act lustful things if the heart be worldly the man will be worldly such as thy heart is such is thy thoughts such are thy affections such are thy actions and till thy heart be Heavenly thou canst never be a fit practitioner of this duty and therefore labour for a Heavenly heart The ninth Rule is this Be not discouraged though you find a difficulty in the beginning of practising this duty but accustom thy self to it Custom will make perfectness usus promptus facit Custom will make it an easie thing as an Apprentice that is newly bound to his Master finds his Trade very hard at first but afterwards by custom when he hath been a year or two at it then it is very easie so at the first you will find it very hard to meditate of Christ to abide and dwell long at it but let me assure you accustom your selves to it and you will find it very easie through Gods mercy Have you not known many a man and woman that hath been by the Physician prescribed to walk up a hill every day at the first he finds it very hard he is not able to do it but within a month or two it begins to be easie and they that before could not go up the hill without resting almost twenty times now they can go up without resting at all Oh the hill of Meditation is hard for us to climb that are so full of the world so full of vanity and folly but if you did accustom your selves to climb up this hill by often doing of it you would find it very easie The tenth and last Rule is this Do all these things by power derived from Iesus Christ I do not think that it is in your power to do these things but I know there is power in Christ and Christ will give you power as the Apostle saith Phil. 4. 13. I am able to do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me Go to Christ for a Heavenly heart for a serious spirit to kindle in thee a love to Heavenly things to shew thee thy interest in Heavenly things for if thou didst
heaven His course was to consider all the Creatures that were under the Heaven I have seen saith he all the works that are done under the Sun and behold all is but vanity and vexation of spirit After he had meditated upon the world he goes over the riches and the pleasures of the world and when he had reckoned them all he concludes in Chap. 2. 11. Then I looked on all the works my hand had wrought and on the labour that I had laboured to do and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit I gathered me silver and gold and the peculiar treasure of Kings and of the Provinces I got me men-singers and women-singers and the delights of the sons of men as musical instruments and that of all sorts so I was great and increased more than all before me in Ierusalem also my wisdom remained with me and whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them And when he had looked upon all these glorious Excellencies what was his Conclusion Behold saith he all was vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no profit under the Sun Did we meditate much on the vanity of the world we would not idolize it so much 7. Divine Meditation is a mighty help to beget in us the grace of thankefulness for the mercies and blessings we receive from God Certainly it is a great duty that lyes upon us to be thankful for Gods mercies now there is no way to stir you up to thankefulness so much as meditation upon the mercies of God for he that forgets the mercies of God cannot be thankful for them and therefore mark the course that David takes Psal. 8. 3. When I consider the heavens the work of thy fingers the Moon the Stars which thou hast ordained then he crys out What is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou visitest him for thou hast made him a little lower than the angels When he considered what God had done for man then he admires the love of God to man and breaks out into thankfulness Certainly a Christian forgetful of Gods mercies can never be thankful for them and the way to beget thankefulness is to meditate on what God hath done for us 8. Divine Meditation is a mighty help to beget in you a preferring of Gods house before your own house It is the great sin of this age wherein we live that every man studies to build his own house and no man cares for the house of the Lord We may truly say as Ieremiah saith This is Sion whom no man regards every man seeks his own interest and no man almost cares what becomes of Religion There is a strange kind of lukewarmness that is upon the spirits of all men in this age that so men may grow great themselves they care not what becomes of the House of God Now Divine Meditation would make you prefer the building of Gods House before the building of your own house And for this purpose let me beseech you to read Hag. 1. 4. Is it time for you Oh ye to dwell in your cieled houses and this house lye waste It was the sin of the people of Israel that they neglected the building of Gods House and every man strove to grow rich in his own particular Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts consider your ways here the Prophet calleth them to consideration ye have sown much but bring in little ye eat but you have not enough ye drink but ye are not filled with drink ye clothe you but there is none warm And he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes What was the matter because they did not build Gods House therefore God did not build their house v. 7. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider your ways ye looked for much but lo it came to little and when you brought it home I did blow upon it why saith the Lord of Hosts because of my house that is waste and ye run every man into his own house therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew and the earth is stayed from her fruit God will never settle England God will never settle your houses till you make conscience to build Gods House and till you have more zeal for the House of God than for your own houses though you may dream of peace and plenty yet certainly the Lord will never build your houses until you build Gods House And therefore he saith further Hag. 2. 17. I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands yet ye turned not to me saith the Lord. Consider now from this day and upward from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month even from the day that the foundation of the Lords Temple was laid consider it from this day will I bless you And certainly the world is much mistaken the way to build your own house is to join together to settle Religion God will never prosper you till Gods House be setled And did you meditate on these two Chapters the first and second Chapter of Haggai it would by Gods grace beget in you a mighty zeal toward the setling of the House of God and to prefer that before the setling of your own house 9. Divine Meditation will beget in us a keeping of all the commandments of God There is no Commandment of God but Divine Meditation when it is sanctified I do not say otherwise will work in us and inable us to keep Deut. 4. 39 40. Know therefore this day and consider it in thy heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath there is none else thou shalt keep therefore his statutes and his commandments And David saith Psal. 119. 55. I have remembred thy name Oh Lord in the night and have kept thy Law 2. Divine Meditation is not only a means to beget grace but it is a mighty help to preserve and increase grace As the wood preserves the fire as the oil preserves the flame as the water preserves the fish so doth meditation preserve your graces It preserves every grace and it increaseth every grace for Meditation is a Divine pair of bellows to blow up the sparks of grace when there is but a little fire meditation will kindle this fire more and increase it when you find your love of God grows cold meditate upon the love of God and this will kindle the love of God in your hearts and when you find the fear of God to diminish in you meditate upon the power of God that thy breath is in his hand that he hath thee in his hand this will increase the fear of God and so when the love of the world increaseth upon you meditate upon the vanity and nothingness of it and this will decrease the love of the world 3. Divine Meditation as it is a means to beget grace and to increase grace so it is
or sealing up all the benefits of our Redemption and it is an exhibition of Jesus Christ it is a deed of gift of Christ God goes about giving of Christ to thee and me and all that labour to come worthily Oh! there cannot be a greater feast wherein Christ is the gift that is bestowed Christ is the banquet Christ and all his benefits 5. You must meditate of your own unworthiness O Lord I am not worthy to pick up the crumbs that fall from thy Table I am not worthy to eat my daily bread much less worthy to eat the Sacramental bread Oh the thought of this will make you say with Mephibosheth What am I a dead dog that my Lord and King should invite me to his table What am I dust and ashes sinful wretch that the Lord Jesus should invite me to such an Heavenly banquet 6. You must meditate of your spiritual wants and necessities what grace dost thou want that thou maist get supplied what sin doth bear most sway in thee that thou maist get it more mortified Now the more sensible you are of your spiritual wants the more will your appetite be quickned to this blessed feast 7. You must meditate of the cursed condition of an unworthy receiver an unworthy receiver is a Christ-murderer a soul-murderer a body-murderer he is guilty of the body and blood of Jesus Christ he eats and drinks down his own damnation he is guilty of bringing diseases For this cause that is for unworthy coming to the Sacrament many are sick and many weak and many die 8. I would have you meditate of the happy condition of those that come worthily to the Sacrament though you do not bring a legal worthiness yet if you have a Gospel-worthiness God will accept of you and the bread that we break shall be the Communion of the Body of Christ and the cup of blessing which we bless shall be the Communion of the Blood of Christ to you the communion of all the blessings of Heaven to thy soul. It shall be the bread of the Lord to you and the bread of life and the cup of Salvation unto you 9. I would have you meditate sometimes of the Sacramental Elements when you see the bread I would have you meditate of the analogy and proportion between bread and the body of Christ you know that bread is the staff of life so is Christ the staff of a Christian bread is not for dead folks but for living folks bread doth not beget life but increaseth and strengthneth life so the Sacrament is not for those that are dead in sin the Sacrament doth not beget Grace but nourish and increase Grace And then I would have you consider the analogy between Wine and the Blood of Christ As Wine refresheth the spirit and cheereth the heart so the Blood of Christ cheereth the soul of every worthy receiver 10. I would have you meditate of the Sacramental actions for all the actions of the Minister at the Sacrament are mystical they all represent Christ Christ is to be read by a spiritual eye in every thing that is done by the Minister the breaking of the bread represents Christs body being broken upon the Cross for our sins and the pouring out the Wine represents how Christs Blood was poured out for us and the giving of the Wine represents how Christ is offered and tendered unto us the taking of the bread and wine represents how thou by faith takes Christ for thy everlasting comfort Every thing in the Sacrament is the object of Meditation and it is a rare thing for a Christian to make the Sacramental Elements to be his Bible when he is at the Sacrament and when he finds his heart dull to look at the Elements the breaking of bread and pouring out of wine which are all spiritual helps to raise up thy heart unto Christ. 11. You must meditate of the Sacramental Promises Christ Jesus hath promised Take eat this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me that is the Sacramental Promise This is my blood which is shed for you do this in remembrance of me Christ hath promised that whensoever we do take this bread and drink this cup worthily he will convey himself to us Now we must feed upon this promise and come to the Sacrament in the strength of this promise and he hath promised that the cup of blessing shall be the cup of the communion of the blood of Christ and the bread that is broken shall be the communion of the body of Christ Now we must meditate upon these Promises and act faith upon them 12. When all this is done I mean when thou hast received the Sacrament then thou must meditate what retribution to make unto Christ for this you must say as David doth Psal. 116. 7. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits toward me Thou must say to thy soul Oh how ought I to love that Christ that hath loved me and became a curse for me how ought I to be willing to die for that Christ that hath shed his blood for me Oh what singular thing shall I do for that Christ that hath become man that hath left the Throne of Heaven and hath taken my nature and hath given himself for me upon the Cross unto me at the Sacrament what great thing shall I return unto this God! Oh that I were made up all of thankfulness Oh that I could do something worthy of this God! This must be your Meditation and you must study to find out some rare piece of service to do for this Christ that hath done and suffered so much for you and you must never leave meditating till you have found out some singular thing As for example such an enemy hath done me wrong I will requite him in loving him the more I will do him the more offices of love that is to walk worthy of Christ who loved me when I was an enemy and then there is such a deed of charity such a poor Christian his family is undone I will do this service for Christ I will give him some proportionable gift some worthy gift that his soul may bless God for me Again Christ Jesus this day hath given me himself he hath given me his body and blood I will go and be willing to die for him I will say with Thomas Come let us die for him I will be willing to suffer reproach for him if he shall call me These are the Meditations wherein you are to spend your time when you are at the Sacrament Now let me say but thus much What rare Christians would we be if from month to month we did thus spend our Sacramental hours surely great would be the benefit and the fruit of it Thus I have done with the time when we are to meditate 3. I am to speak of the properties and qualities of Divine Meditation in all holy duties it is not so much the
how thou behavest thy self towards God and towards thy neighbour Meditate of the sinfulness of sin the vanity of the world the length of eternity and the excellency of the Gospel 1. Meditate of the sinfulness of sin sin is the greatest evil in the world it is a greater evil than banishment than death than Hell it self meditate of the intrinsecal and extrinsecal evil of sin 2. Meditate of the vanity of the creature all earthly things are vain they are vanity of vanity and vexation of spirit they are all unsatisfying and unprofitable what will all the world do you good when you are sick when you are ready to die 3. Meditate of the length of eternity Oh eternity eternity that we studied thee more that we thought more of thee Study the difference between time and eternity for Time is nothing else but an intersection between two Eternities before there was time there was eternity and when time shall be no more there shall be eternity Time in comparison of Eternity is no more than a Thatcht-house in comparison of all the houses in the world than a drop of water in comparison of the Ocean 4. Study the excellency of the Gospel Oh meditate of the glorious Gospel of Christ and what a priviledg it is to enjoy the Gospel and meditate whether thy life be answerable to the Gospel whether thou that hast lived so long under the Gospel hast lived a life conformable to the Gospel Study the Commandments of God the Threatnings of God the Promises of God and the Ordinances of God 1. Study the Commandments of God whether thou keepest them or no to be humbled for not keeping them to labour to keep them better 2. Study the Threatnings of God and stand in awe of them and fear them 3. Study the Promises of God the glorious the precious Promises the freeness of the Promises the fulness of the Promises the infallibleness of the Promises there is no condition a child of God can be in but there is some promise or other to comfort him the universality of the tender of the Promises thy interest in the Promises whether the Promises of the Gospel belong to thee or no 4. Study the Ordinances of God that is study how to come prepared to Ordinances how to manage Ordinances so that Gods name may be honoured by them And there are four Ordinances that you must meditate of 1. You must meditate of the Ordinance of Prayer you must study the excellency of Prayer the efficacy of Prayer you must study to get the gift of Prayer to get the grace of Prayer Study how to pray in the Holy Ghost how to pray with faith with fervency with repentance 2. You must meditate of the Ordinance of reading the Word that is an Ordinance of God and you must study to read the Word with reverence and godly fear to read the Word as Gods Word to read the Word in a different way than you read any other Book whatsoever 3. You must meditate of the Ordinance of hearing the Word study the right art of hearing the Word so to hear the Word as to be transformed into what you hear to be trained up to Heaven by what you hear so to hear the Word as Gods Word with an universal resignation of thy will to what thou hearest 4. The Ordinance of the Sacrament of the Lords-Supper Oh meditate much of this Ordinance I have told you several Heads of Meditation for the Sacrament Study the errors of the times the Iudgments of God upon the Nation the changes God hath made in this Nation and the mercies of God 1. Study the errors of the times labour to get preservatives against them it is a lamentation and it shall be for a lamentation there is a great Apostacy from the Truths of Christ among many Professors of Religion you shall hardly go into a family but you shall find some or other be-lepered with error Here is thy work O Christian to study the errors of the times what to do to get antidotes and preservatives against Anabaptism against Socinianism against Anti-sabbatarianism against Anti-scripturism against those that deny the Divinity of Christ and the Divinity of the Holy Ghost to get Spiritual armour to be able to resist all the errors of these times It is a great shame and oh that you would be humbled for it that one erroneous person can speak more for the defence of his error than twenty Orthodox Christians are able to speak for the Truth for want of studying antidotes and preservatives against the errors of the times 2. Study the Iudgments of God that have been for these many years upon England Scotland and Ireland the hand of God is gone out against these three Nations and the Lord hath laid us desolate and the sword hath drunk a great deal of blood and no man lays it to heart Now let us meditate of Gods great Iudgments upon this land that we may know the meaning of Gods rod and we may know how to get all these Judgments sanctified unto us 3. Meditate of the great changes that God hath made in this Nation we have been tossed from one condition to another from one way of Government to another Study all the changes and alterations that God hath made by his permitting-Providence Oh what a shame is it that we should meditate no more of Gods ways and dealings to know the meaning of God in all these alterations and changes and what the language of God is and what use we should make of them and how we should keep a good conscience and keep close to our Principles and how we should honour God under all our changes 4. You must meditate of the several passages of Gods Providence towards us there is no man or woman here but hath had rare experience of Gods Providence either in the place of thy dwelling that God should pitch thy dwelling under such a Minister or in the manner of thy Marriage or the Providence of God at such a time under such a sickness it is our duty to take special notice of the Providence of God in raising thee up a friend in helping thee at such a time For want of Meditation we lose all the benefit of the passages of Gods Providence and God loseth all his glory 5. You must meditate of the mercies of God of National mercies Family mercies Personal mercies mercies to thy soul mercies to thy body preventing mercies following mercies what a Catalogue would here be if you would keep a daily account of the mercies of God! The sixth thing is to lay down Rules and Directions for the better practising of this most excellent and necessary duty of Divine Meditation and indeed this is the chief of all there is no Christian but he will confess it is a very difficult duty to dwell upon the thoughts of Heaven and Heavenly things Divine Meditation is an up-hill duty and the reason why it is so difficult is because it