You must meditate of the fourfold state of man man may be considered in a fourfold state 1. Either in the state of innocency as he was before the fall a spotless picture of God that is a rare meditation study the happiness of man before he fell when he was made after Gods own image 2. The state of man when fallen when corrupted study the cursed condition of man in his natural condition 3. The estate of man when restored by Christ when regenerated when renew'd when made a picture of God 4. The estate of man in Heaven 1. What thou wert in Adam 2. What thou art when fallen 3. What thou art in Christ. 4. What thou shalt be in Heaven You must meditate of your sins of your good duties of your evidences and of your comforts 1. You must meditate of your sins that is a large field to walk in you must meditate of the sins you have committed against God of your sins of omission of your sins of commission your sins against the Law your sins against the Gospel your Sermon-sins your Sacrament-sins your spiritual sins your fleshly sins You must meditate of sin to be humbled for it that is a rare meditation to fit you for the Sacrament And oh that we had hearts seriously to meditate of our sins 2. You must meditate of your good duties that is how many good duties we omit how many good duties we sinfully perform whether we perform duties so as to please God in the performance of them 3. You must meditate of your Evidences for Heaven whether they are right or no whether you have gotten Tribunal-proof assurance for Heaven whether thy Evidences for Heaven are death-enduring whether they will hold out at the day of Judgment 4. You must meditate of your comforts whether those comforts that you have be the consolations of the Spirit or the delusions of the Devil There are many men will tell you that they have comforts but their comforts are Diabolical delusions not Divine consolations You must meditate of the frailty of your body the immortality of your soul the dependance you have upon God and the advantage God hath you at 1. The frailty of your body the body of man is made of dust and will quickly crumble to dust it is an earthly Tabernacle that is easily dissolved What a rare thing will it be to take the Scripture and study all the comparisons to which the life of man is compared to set out the shortness of it it is compared to grass to hay to stubble to dry stubble to a dry leaf to a swift post to a vapour to a hands-breadth meditate of the frailty of thy vile body that will quickly go down to the house of rottenness 2. Meditate of the immortality of thy soul thy precious soul which is a picture of God made by God and made for God There is no man but hath a heavenly tapour within him which can never be blown out there is no man but he hath that within him that he cannot kill himself there is no man but he hath that within him that must live for ever as blessed as an Angel or as cursed as a Devil Meditate upon the dependance you have upon God Oh this will keep thee humble and make thee comply with Gods will thou dependest upon God for thy being thy well-being thy eternal being thou dependest upon God every minute thou livest by Gods upholding thee study the dependance thou hast upon God for thy soul thy body thy wise thy children thy all 4. Meditate of the advantage God hath thee at God hath all the world between his hands as the Prophet saith and he can easily crush us as we do a moth as we are creatures he can annihilate us if he please and as we are sinners he can throw us into hell if he please Study the relations in which God hath placed thee study thy calling thy company thy heart 1. Study thy relations in which God hath placed thee there is none of us all but we are under many relations art thou a Minister art thou a Magistrate art thou a Father art thou a Master study the duties of every relation study how to honour God in every relation study to keep a good conscience in every relation 2. Study thy calling how to honour God in thy calling how to keep a good conscience in thy calling how to keep thy self unspotted from the sins of thy calling for there is no calling but hath some sin or other attending it Oh meditate that thy Shop do not destroy thy soul meditate to keep a good conscience in thy Shop that thou dost not lose in thy own house what thou gainest in Gods house 3. Study thy company what company to keep that is a great matter for I know a man by his company more than any thing whatsoever I mean by the company he useth to keep Study to keep a good conscience in all company study to keep thy self from the sins of thy company 4. Study thy heart meditate often of thine own heart the deceitfulness of thy heart the heart is deceitful above all things it is the greatest cheater in the world and there are thousands whose hearts do cozen them into Hell thy heart will tell thee thou lovest God when thou dost not love him at all that thou art upright when thou art an hypocrite Study thy Thoughts thy Affections thy Words and thy Actions 1. Meditate of thy Thoughts the vanity of thy thoughts the vileness of thy thoughts the Hell shall I say that is in thy thoughts if all the thoughts that we think were written upon our foreheads how would we be ashamed that the world should see us Oh meditate of thy covetous thoughts of thy lustful thoughts thy vile and vain thoughts to be humbled for them 2. Meditate of thy Affections God doth especially look to our affections he hates any service that is not mixed with affection There are several Affections meditate of thy love whether thou lovest God or the world most Meditate where thy love is whether thou servest God out of love whether the world doth not lye nearer thy heart than Christ Meditate of thy desire whether thou hast larger desires after the creature than after God Meditate of thy joy whether thou dost not delight more in vanity than in Christ Jesus And meditate of thy sorrow whether thou dost not mourn more for outward losses than for thy sins Meditate of thy anger whether thy anger be rightly placed And meditate of thy trust and hopes whether thou dost trust in God at all times 3. You must meditate of your Words Oh what a world of sin is in our tongues and if we would meditate of the sins of our tongues Oh what a black catalogue would there be the tongue is a world of iniquity set on fire of hell saith the Apostle Iames. 4. Meditate of thy Actions whether thy actions be agreeable to the will of God or no
things to be glasses to see God in pictures to behold God in the Goodness of God and the Wisdom of God and he endeavours to receive spiritual instruction by them 2. Herein a child of God exceeds all wicked men there is no wicked man can use the Creatures spiritually it is above his sphere a wicked man makes the Creatures a wall of separation between God and him not a glass to see God there is no wicked man useth the Creatures of God as a looking-glass to behold God in or as a footstool to raise him up to God or a ladder to climb to God by this is proper only to a godly man 5. Consider this It is the greatest affront you can offer to God not to take spiritual notice of his creatures not to make a spiritual use of his Creatures God hath put mankind upon the stage of this world and God hath made all the Creatures for mans use and God hath made man to be the tongue to praise him for all his Creatures and if man doth not praise him God loseth the praise of all the whole Creation God made all the Creatures for man and man to praise him for all the Creatures which if man neglect God loseth the glory of the whole Creation for how doth the Sun and the Moon and the Stars praise God! The Prophet David calls upon the Ice and the Snow and the Rain and all the Creatures of God to praise God How do they praise God How doth the fire and the water praise God When we praise God for these things then they praise God when we use them for God and draw Heavenly things spiritual instruction out of them and when we do not do this we offer the greatest affront that can be offered to God in that kind and we deprive God of the glory of the whole Creation 6. It is a soul-destroying sin not to observe the works of God and to make a good use of them Psal. 28. 5. Because they regard not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hand he shall destroy them and not build them up These are the six motives Now in a word to put an end to this Discourse let me beseech and intreat you that you would put this duty in practise let me tell you Sirs that though occasional ejaculatory meditation be but as a Parenthesis as one very well saith in your worldly businesses yet this Parenthesis is more worth than all your worldly business yea it signifies more than all your worldly business As for example I will conclude my Discourse by giving you a little help When I rise in a morning what an excellent thing were it for a man to meditate of the great morning of the Resurrection and that it shall be as easie for men to rise out of the grave at the great Resurrection as it hath been for me this morning to arise out of my bed And when the Sun begins to arise and we behold the Sun shining what a rare meditation is it to consider there will a day come wherein the Sun of Righteousness shall come in the clouds and all his holy Angels with him and all the Saints at that day shall shine as so many Suns in the firmament O what a glorious day will that be when there shall be as many Suns as there are Saints there shall be as many Suns as there are Stars now in a bright shining night in the Heaven And when thou art going abroad it would be very comely spiritual and useful to remember that thou hast two companions always going with thee that is God and the Devil pardon me that I join them together thou hast thy judg and thy accuser to go with thee wheresoever thou walkest in the day time one Devil or other is always waiting upon thee and God is always present with thee who will call thee to an account for all that thou dost and the Devil scores up all that thou dost for to acaccuse thee afterward And when thou walkest abroad and seest a debauched wicked man it is an excellent thing to have a meditation and to say Blessed be God that hath made me to differ from this man if it had not been for the grace of God I had been as wicked as this man And when thou meetest with a godly man a man eminent for godliness Oh put up a prayer to God that he would make thee as godly and mourn that thou art not as godly as he When thou meetest with a learned man or a wise man or a beautiful creature it is a very excellent meditation to consider if there be so much beauty so much wisdom in the creature O what is there in God who is the ocean of beauty if there be so much comeliness so much excellency here below Oh what is there above It is a rare thing to use the creatures reflexively it is Idolatry to use the creature terminately but the admirable the superlative excellency of a Christian is to use the Creature reflexively to reflect from the Creature to the Creator So likewise when thou art in thy Shop and weighing thy Commodities would it not be an excellent meditation to think there will a time come when God will weigh thee in a ballance and weigh thy actions and weigh all that thou dost And meditate on that Text Prov. 11. 1. A false ballance is an abomination to the Lord. And so likewise when you walk in the fields and behold the grass that grows and behold the flowers of the field doth it not become you to meditate that all flesh is grass and all the glory of the world is but the goodliness of the grass and all earthly things are but like the beauty of a flower My little Child that I love so much is but like this flower it is beautiful but it is but fading And when thou seest a wicked man grow great by wicked ways would it not be a very comfortable thing to remember that Text Fret not thy self because of evil doers neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity for they shall be soon cut down as the grass and wither as the green herb And you that are Merchants when you are upon the Exchange a short sudden ejaculation would not be hurtful but helpful to you As for example to remember that as you are Merchant-adventurers for earthly things so you are all Merchant-adventurers for heaven and your souls are in the midst of the Sea of this world this world is like a Sea and your soul is here like a ship at Sea and is in danger to be split upon the rocks in danger of pirates and in danger of being lost Your Ships have not half so many dangers as your Souls have the temptations of the Devil the allurements of the world the corruptions of your own hearts Now to consider as in the Exchange what is become of such and such a Ship so to ask thy soul in what
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
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