THE context is spent in describing the journey of
Rebekah with Abraham's servant, and the text showeth the occasion of the first
interview between Isaac and Rebekah ; he goeth out into the fields to meditate,
and of a sudden he seeth the camels coming.
I cannot pass by this accident without some remark and observation. Isaac goeth
to meet with God, and he meeteth with God and Rebekah too. Godliness hath the
promises of this life and that which is to come; there is nothing lost by duty
and acts of piety and worship. Seneca said the Jews were an unhappy people,
because they lost the seventh part of their lives, meaning the time spent in
the sabbath. This is the sense of nature, to think all lost that is bestowed on
God. Flesh and blood snuffeth and crieth, What a weariness is it! and what need
all this waste? Oh! let me tell you, by serving God you drive on two cares at
once. Worldly interests many times are cast into the way of religion, and,
besides the main design, these things are added to us. Wonderful are the
providences of God in and about duties of worship. Some have gone aside to
pray, and escaped such as lay in wait to destroy them; and Luther tells a story
of one that balked a duty and fell into a danger, passed by a sermon , and was
presently surprised by thieves. Others there are that thought of nothing but
meeting God in his worship, and God hath made their duties an occasion of
advancing their outward comforts. Certainly it is good to obey all impulses of
the Spirit; there may be somewhat of providence as well as grace in it: 'Isaac
went out to meditate in the field at the even-tide; and he lift up his eyes and
saw, and behold the camels were coming.'
In the words you have several circumstances:
the person, Isaac.
his work, ‘He went out to meditate.’
the place, ‘in the field.’
the time, ‘at even-tide.’
1. For the person, Isaac.
I need not say much, because I would not digress. He was Abraham's son, and God
said of Abraham, Gen. 18:19, ‘I know him, that he will command his
children, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord,
to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he
hath spoken of him.’ Good education leaveth a savour and tincture upon the
spirit, at least an awe and a care of duties and exercises of religion; and
therefore it is no wonder to hear of Abraham’s son that had been trained
up in the way of the Lord, to go out to meditate; it is a seal of the blessing
of education. Again, Isaac was now in his youth; certainly he could not be very
old. Sarah was ninety years old when the promise was first made to her of a
son: Gen. 17:17, ‘Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, and said in
his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and
shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?’ Now Sarah was but one
hundred and twenty-seven years old when she died, Gen. 23:1, and this match
was immediately after her death; for just as he received Rebekah he left off
his mourning for Sarah: Gen. 24:67, ‘And Isaac brought her into his mother
Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her:
and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.’ Probably Isaac was
now a little above thirty. Isaac, a young man, that was now entering into the
world, goeth out to meditate. Usually we make religious exercises the work of
grey hairs, and after we have spent the heat and flower of our spirits in the
vanities of the world, we hope to make amends for all by a severe and devout
retirement. Young and green heads look upon meditation as a dull melancholy
work, fit only for the phlegm and decay of old age; vigorous and eager spirits
are more for action than thoughts, and their work lieth so much with others
that they have no time to descend into themselves. But the elder world was more
innocent; the exercises of Isaac’s youth were pious; he went out into the
field to meditate.
2. To open his work to you, ‘to meditate,’ or, as it is in the
margin, to pray, the word used in the original is indifferent to both
senses.
It properly signifies muttering, or an imperfect and suppressed sound. The
Septuagint sometimes renders it by ‘aeideo’, to sing, but they
render it by ‘adoleschesai’, which signifies to exercise
himself, and most properly a sportive exercise, as if his going abroad had been
only to sport and recreate himself after the toil of the day. But that is not
so probable; the Holy Ghost would not put such a mark upon such a circumstance.
Therefore I suppose the Septuagint’s word must be taken more largely to
comprise also a religious exercise. But how is it? To pray or meditate? I would
not recede from our own translation without weighty cause; most other
translations look that way. Symmachus renders it lalesai, to speak;
Aquila, ‘homilesai’, to discourse as with others, that is,
with God and his own soul; and so it suiteth with the force of the original
word, which properly signifies to mutter, or such a speaking as is between
thoughts and words. So that the meaning is, he went aside privately to
discourse of God, and the promises, and of heavenly things.
3. The place, ‘In the field.’
Partly for privacy; deep thoughts require a retirement. Many of David’s
psalms were penned in the wilderness. He that would have the company of God and
his own thoughts need go aside from other company, and be alone that he may not
be alone, that the mind, being sequestered from all distractions, may solace
itself the more freely in these heavenly thoughts: Exod. 3:1, ‘Moses led
the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even
to Horeb.’ He goeth aside from the other shepherds, that he might converse
with the great shepherd and bishop of our souls, and there he seeth the vision
of the burning bush. When God would commmunicate his loves to the church, he
inviteth her into the wilderness: Hosea 2:14, ‘Therefore behold I will
allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.'
The most familiar and intimate converses between God and the church are in
private. So the spouse inviteth the bridegroom: Song of Sol. 7:11, ‘Come,
my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us lodge in the villages.' In
these solitary and heavenly retirements to which no eyes are conscious and
privy, we have most experience of God and of ourselves. Duties done in company
are more easy; by-ends and man's eye and observance may have an influence upon
our worship, and therefore meditation is difficult and tedious, because it is a
work of retirement, that hath approbation from none but our Father that seeth
in secret. Partly because the field is an help to meditation, fancy and
invention being elevated and raised by the sweetness, variety, and pleasure of
it, there being on every side so many objects and lively memorials of God.
However in this sense the circumstance is not binding. Some do better in a
closet than in a field or garden, where the senses being locked from all other
objects, the mind may fall more directly upon itself, which otherwise in a
field or garden would skip from object to object, without pitching upon any
seriously.
4. The last circumstance in the text is the time, ‘In the even-tide,'
which is also a matter of an arbitrary concernment.
Time in itself is but an inactive circumstance; all hours are alike to God; he
taketh no more pleasure in the sixth or ninth hour than in the first hour; only
you should prudently observe when your spirit is most fresh and smart. To some
the morning is quickest, the fancy being fittest to offer spiritual and
heavenly thoughts, before it hath received any images and representations from
carnal objects abroad. Morning thoughts are, as it were, virgin thoughts of the
mind, before they have been prostituted to these inferior and baser objects,
and so are more pure and sublime and defecate; and then the soul, like the hind
of the morning, with a swift and nimble readiness climbeth up to the mountain
of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense: Song of Sol. 4:6,’Until the day
break and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of mvrrh and to
the hill of frankincense;’ and it tended much to season the whole day when
we can talk with the law in the morning: Prov. 6:22, ‘When thou awakest,
it shall talk with thee.' To some the evening seemeth fitter, that when the
gayishness and vanity of the spirit hath been spent in business, their thoughts
may be more serious and solemn with God; and after the weights have been
running down all day through their employments of the world, they may wind them
up again at night in these recesses and exercises of piety and religion; as
David says; Ps. 25:1, 'Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.' To others the
silence and stillness of the night seemeth to be an help, and because of the
curtain of darkness that is drawn between them and the world, they can the
better entertain serious and solemn thoughts of God. David speaks everywhere in
the psalms of his nocturnal devotions: Ps. 63:6, ‘When I remember thee
upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night-watches.’ The expression is
taken from the custom of the Jews, who divided the night into so many watches.
Whilst others were reposing their bodies on their beds, David was reposing his
soul in the bosom of God, and he have the less rest to his eyes that he might
give the more to his soul. So Ps. 119:148, ‘Mine eyes prevent the
night-watches, that I might meditate in thy word.’ Certainly in the night,
when we are taken off from other business, we have the greatest command of our
thoughts, and the covert of darkness that God hath stretched over the world
begetteth a greater awe and reverence. Therefore Mr. Greenham, when he pressed
any weighty point, and perceived any careless, used to beg of them that, if God
by his providence should suffer them to awake in the night, they would but
think of his words. Certainly the mind, being by sleep emptied of other cares,
like a mill falleth upon itself, and the natural awe and terror is the effect
of darkness helpeth to make the thoughts more solemn and serious. So that you
see much may be said for the conveniency of either of these seasons, evening or
morning, or night. It is your duty to be faithful to your own souls, and
sometimes to take the advantage either of the night or of the day, or the
morning, or the evening as best suits us. David saith, Ps. 119:97, ‘Oh!
how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.’ So he describes his
blessed man: Ps.1:2, ‘His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his
law doth he meditate day and night;’ that is, sometimes in the day and
sometimes in the night; no time can come amiss to a prepared spirit.
Isaac’s hour was in the even-tide; in the evening he went out to meditate,
in which two things are notable:
[1.] That he made duty his refreshment.
He had wrought all the day, and in the evening he goeth to recreate himself
with God. What a shame is it that what was his solace is our burden! If we had
a spiritual discerning, we should soon see that there is no delight to that of
duty, and no refreshment like that which we enjoy in the exercises of religion
and in communion with God. The world’s delights are vain and dreggy; they
may provoke laughter, but they cannot yield any pure, solid, and true
contentment. It was Christ's meat to do his Father’s will: John 4:34,
‘My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his
work.’ It was sweeter to Job than his appointed food to hear God’s
word: Job 23:12, ‘I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my
necessary food.’ And David saith, Ps.119:54, ‘Thy statutes have been
my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.’ All the comfort he had to drive
away the sad and disconsolate hours of his pilgrimage was to exercise himself
in the study and meditation of God’s word. And it was Isaac’s evening
comfort to go out and meditate. Gracious hearts must have spiritual delights,
the word and obedience, and prayer, and meditation. As one said, ‘Aut
hoc non est evangelium, aut nos non sumus christiani’. Either these
histories are not true, or our hearts are much unlike theirs. Oh! how sweet
would it be if we could make duty a recreation and our work our pleasure; that
in the close of the day this might be our solace, after the work of the day to
take a turn with God in the mount, and to walk in the garden of love, and, as
David said, Ps. 104:34, ‘My meditation of him shall be sweet; I will be
glad in the Lord.’ Isaac went out at even-tide.
[2.] That at the evening his spirit was still fresh and savoury.
This was the time not of necessity, but choice. Many spend their heat and
strength in the world, toiling all day, and in the evening come and offer God a
drowsy, yawning prayer, when all the vigour of their spirits is wasted. You
should bring forth the best wine at last; never so engage in the world as to
hinder a duty. It should be the wisdom of Christians to guide their affairs
with such Judgment that duties may not become a burden and a weariness. Now a
soul encumbered with business cannot act with such delight and freedom as it
ought. Too often do we suffer the lean kine to devour the fat. Mary hath cause
to complain of Martha; so much time is spent in the world that we have no heart
or strength for communion with God; and usually when all are asleep and wearied
out with the world, then we call to duty. Oh! remember in the evening and close
of the day your affections should be quick and free for spiritual things. Isaac
went out at evening-tide.'
I shall sum up the intent of the whole verse in this one point:
Doct. That it is the duty of Christians to sequester and set apart
some time and place for solemn meditation, or the exercising their souls in
heavenly and holy things.
My purpose is to speak of meditation, a duty unaccustomed and unpracticed; both
the practice and the knowledge of it are become strangers to us. The times are
times of action and tumult, and we all think that we have so much to do with
others, that few desire to converse with God and themselves. Our case is
somewhat like theirs in Nehemiah’s time, Neh. 4:17, ‘With one hand
they wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.’ We are
forced to fight and quarrel for our religion, that we may rescue the innocent
and holy principles of it from violation and scorn. I observe that many
Christians use the sword, they spend the heat and strength of their spirits in
controversies; but I doubt they do not use the trowel enough, and are not so
serious in private retirements as they are earnest in public defences.
Therefore I shall make it my work to press the duty of meditation.
My method shall be this: I shall show-
(1.) What meditation is.
(2.) The necessity and profit of it.
(3.) The rules that serve to guide us in the holy work and business.
(4.) The lets and hindrances of it, with the helps and remedies against
them.
(5.) The object or matters upon which you are to meditate, which I shall handle
first, generally; secondly, particularly.
I shall give you some hints of meditation on those objects which are most
usual and most practical.
1. What meditation is.
Before I can define it I must distingush it.
1. There is that which we call occasional meditation, which is an act by
which the soul spiritualiseth every object about which it is conversant.
A gracious heart is like an alembic, it can distil useful meditations out of
all things it meeteth with. Look as it seeth all things in God, so it seeth God
in all things. Our Lord at the well discourseth of 'the water of life,' John
21:10. At the supper of the pharisee one discourseth of 'eating bread in the
kingdom of God,' Luke 14:15. There is a chemistry and holy art that a Christian
hath to turn water into wine, brass into gold, to make earthly occasions and
objects to minister spiritual and heavenly thoughts. God trained up the old
church by types and ceremonies, that upon a common object they might ascend to
spiritual thoughts; and our Lord in the new testament taught by parables and
similitudes taken from ordinary functions and offices among men that in every
trade and calling we might be employed in our worldly business with an heavenly
mind, that, whether in the shop, or at the loom, or in the field, we might
still think of Christ and heaven. There is a parable of merchant-m en, a
parable of the sower, a parable of a man calling his servants to an account. In
all these similitudes Christ would teach us that we should still think of God
and heaven. So small a matter as a grain of mustard seed may yield many
spiritual applications.
2. There is set and solemn meditation.
Now this is of several sorts, or rather, they are but several parts of the same
exercise.
[1.] There is a reflexive meditation, by which we wholly fall upon
ourselves.
This is nothing else but a solemn parley between a man and his own heart: Ps.
4:4, ‘Commune with your own hearts upon your bed, and be still.’ When
in a solemn retirement, reason and inward discourse returneth and falleth back
upon itself. Of all the parts of meditation this is the most difficult, for
here a man is to exercise dominion over his soul, and to be his own accuser and
judge; it is against self-love and carnal ease. We see all our shifts are to
avoid our own company and to run away from ourselves. Guilty man, like a
basilisk, dieth by seeing himself. hence the worldly man choketh his soul with
business, lest his thoughts, for want of work, like a mill should grind upon
itself. The voluptuous person melteth away his days in pleasure, and charmeth
his soul into a deep sleep with the portion of outward delights, lest it should
awake and talk with him. Oh! then, necessary it is that a Christian should take
some time to discourse with himself, to ask of our own souls, what we are? What
we have been? What we have done? Jer. 8:6; what straits, what temptations we
have passed through, and how we have overcome them? You would think it strange
of two men that conversed every day for forty or fifty years, and all this
while they did not know one another; yet this is the case between us and our
souls; we live a long time in this world and are strangers to ourselves.
[2.] There is a meditation which is more direct and that is of two
sorts:
(1.) Dogmatical, whose object is the word.
(2.) Practical, whose object is our lives.
There is more of search and apprehension in the first and more of plot and
contrivance in the second. The one is more conversant about doctrines; the
other about things. The latter catcheth hold of the heel of the former ans
where dogmatical meditation endeth, there practical meditation beginneth.
(1.) Dogmatical meditation is when we exercise ourselves in the doctrines of
the word and consider how truths known may be useful to us.
It differeth from study, partly in the object; study is conversant about a
thing unknown in whole or in part: Rom.12:2. ‘That ye may prove what is
that good and acceptable and perfect will of God;’ but meditation is an
act of knowledge reiterated, or a return of the mind to that point to which it
arrived before; it is the inculcation or whetting of a known truth, the pause
of reason on something already conceived and known, or a calling to remembrance
what we know before. Partly in the end; the end of study is information, but
the end of meditation is practice, or a work upon affections: Josh. 1:8,
‘This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt
meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all
that is written therein.’ Study is like a winter’s sun that shineth
but warmeth not; but meditation is like the blowing up of the fire, where we do
mind the blaze but the heat. The fruit of study is to hoard up truth, but the
fruit of meditation is to practise it. Curious inquiries have more of the
student in them than the Christian. In study we are rather like vintners, that
take in wines to store themselves for sale. In meditation we are like private
men that buy wine for our use and comfort. A vintner’s cellar may be
better stored than a nobleman’s but he hath it for others use. The student
may have more of notion and knowledge, his cellar may be fuller, but he hath it
not for taste and necessary refreshment as the Christian hath.
(2.) More practical and applicative meditation is when we take ourselves
aside from worldly distractions that we may solemnly debate and study how to
carry on the holy life with better success and advantage when we are wise in
our sphere.
Luke 16:8, ‘The children of this world are in their generation wiser than
the children of light, ‘eis ten genean’, in their
generation;’ it is a Hebrew phrase for the manner, course and sphere of
our lives: Gen.6:9, ‘There are the generations of Noah; Noah was a just
man and perfect in his generation, and Noah walked with God;’ so to be
wise in our generation is to wise in our manner of living and business. So it
is said, Ps 112:5, ‘He will guide his affairs with discretion,’ which
noteth plotting and wise foresight, choosing our way, or devising our way, as
Solomon calleth it: Prov. 16:9, ‘A man’s heart deviseth his
way.’ It is a great part of a christian’s employment. The scriptures
call for it for a minister: 2 Tim. 2:15, ‘Study to show thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word
of truth,’ to devise how to carry on how to carry on his ministry with
most honour and success. So for private Christians: Heb. 10:24, ‘Let us
consider on e another, to provoke unto love and to good works.’ We should
consider one another, each other’s gifts, dispositions, and graces, that
so our spiritual converse and commerce might be the more improved. By this kind
of meditation piety is made more prudent, reasonable, and orderly. Christians
that live at haphazard and order their lives at adventure, without these
rational and wise debates, if they do not stain their profession with foul
indiscretions, yet find much inconvenience and toil in the holy life, and are
not half so useful as others are. Certainly we should learn this of the
children of this world. A wicked man is plotting for his lusts: Rom. 13:14,
‘Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof,’
‘me poieisthe pronoian’. They make provision, they are
catering how they may feed such a lust and satisfy such a carnal desire.
Therefore certainly we should take care for the conveniencies of the holy life,
how we may be most useful for God, and pass through our relat ions with most
advantage, and cast our businesses that they may be the least disadvantage to
religion, and consider how particular duties may be the most dexterously
accomplished: Ps. 116:12, ‘What shall I render unto the Lord for all his
benefits towards me?’
These are the kinds of meditation. The definition may be formed thus:
Meditation is that duty or exercise of religion whereby the mind is applied to
the serious and solemn contemplation of spiritual things for practical uses and
purposes.
I shall open the description by the parts of it.
1. It is a duty and exercise of religion.
[1.] That it is a duty and exercise of religion appeareth by evidence of
scripture, where it is commanded, Josh. 1:8, 'This book of the law shall not
depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night.' It is
made a character of a godly man: Ps. 1:2, ‘His delight is in the law of
the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.' It is commended in
the practice and example of the saints that were most famous in scripture;
Isaac in the text, Moses and David. And as it is plain by the evidence of
scripture; so by the light of nature and reason. God that is a spirit deserveth
the most pure and spiritual worship, as well as such as is performed by the
body. The thoughts are the eldest and noblest offspring of the soul, and the
solemn consecration of them is fit for God. In the gospel meditation is called
for. I find in the Old Testament the main thing there called for is meditation
in the law. In the gospel we are directed to a new object, the love of Christ:
Ep h. 3:17-19,’That ye, being rooted grounded in love, may be able to
comprehend with all the saints the breadth, and length, and depth, and height,
and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge;’ that is the
study of saints. I confess it is more called for in the Old Testament; being
gross and carnal, they needed greater enforcements to spiritual duties; But now
it suiteth every way with the nature of our worship: John 4:24; ‘God is a
spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.' Now
worship in spirit and in truth is more agreeable to our state. Meditation is a
pure and rational converse with God: it is the flower and height of consecrated
reason.
[2.] It is not a duty of an arbitrary concernment.
It is not only a moral help that may be observed or omitted, but a necessary
duty, without which all graces would languish and wither. Faith is lean and
ready to starve unless it be fed with continual meditation on the promises; as
David saith, Ps. 119:92, ‘Unless thy law had been my delight, I should
then have perished in my affliction.' Thoughts are the caterers of the soul,
that purvey for faith, and fetch in food and refresh it with the comfort of the
promises. Hope is low, and doth not arise to such a fullness of expectation
till by meditation we take a deliberate view of our hopes and privileges: Gen.
13:17,’Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it, and in the
breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee.' Our hopes arise according to the
largeness of our thoughts. It is a great advantage to have our eyes open to
view the riches of inheritance, and to have a distinct view of the hope of our
calling. The apostle prays for the Ephesians, chap. 1:18, 'The eyes of your
under standings being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his
calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.'
Men of barren thoughts are usually of low hopes, and for want of getting to the
top of Pisgah to view the land, our hearts sink within us. Certainly hope
thriveth best on the mount of meditation. Then for love, the sparkles of
affection will not flow out unless we beat upon the will of constant thoughts.
Affection is nourished by apprehension, and the more constant and deliberate
the thoughts are, the love is always deeper. Those Christians that are backward
to the duty of meditation find none of those impulses and meltings of love that
are in others; they do not endeavour to comprehend the height and breadth and
length, and depth of the love of Christ, and therefore no wonder that their
hearts are so narrow and so much straitened towards God. Affections always
follow the rate of our thoughts, if they are ponderous and serious. Then for
obedience, or keeping the spirits constantly in a religious frame; to others
good motions come like flashes of lightning, and are as soon gone, as their
thoughts are slight and vanishing, but deep musing maketh the fire burn, and
keepeth a constant heat and flame in the spirits, not by flashes. And as for
duty, so for comfort; a man that is a stranger to meditation is a stranger to
himself. In acts of review you enjoy yourselves, and you enjoy yourselves with
far more comfort in these private recesses; you have most experience of God,
and most experience of yourselves. Moses when he went aside to meditate had the
vision of the fiery bush. Usually God cometh in, in the time of deep meditation
and an elevated heavenly mind is fittest to entertain the comforts and glory of
his presence. Thus you see it is a necessary duty. Many think it is an excuse
to say it doth not suit their temper; that it is a good help, but for those
that can use it. I answer…
(1.) It is true there is a great deal of difference among Christians.
Some are more serious and consistent, and have a greater command over their
thoughts, others are of a more slight, weak spirit, and are less apt for duties
of retirement and recollection. But our unfitness is usually moral rather than
natural, not so much by temper as by disuse; and moral unfitness cannot exempt
us from a moral duty. Inky water cannot wash the hand white, or a sin exempt me
from a duty. Indisposition, which is a sin in me, doth not disannul my
engagements to God; as a servant’s drunkenness doth not excuse him from
work. That it is a moral unfitness appeareth by two things…
(1st) Disuse and neglect is the cause of it.
Those that use it have a greater command over their thoughts. Men count it a
great yoke, but custom would make it easy. Every duty is an help to itself, and
the more we meditate the more we shall. It is pleasant to them that use it: Ps.
1:2, ‘His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he
meditate day and night.’ Fierce creatures are tame to those that use to
command them, and if a man did use to govern his thoughts, he would find them
more obedient.
(2nd) Want of love.
Thoughts are at the service of love; we pause and stay upon such objects as we
delight in, Ps. 1:2. Love naileth and fasteneth the soul to the object or thing
beloved; as we see we can dwell upon carnal pleasures because our heart is
there; as Solomon gives this reason why a carnal man cannot dwell upon a sad
and solemn object, because ‘his heart is in the house of mirth,’
Eccles. 7:4. We usually complain we want temper and we want matter; but the
truth is we want an heart. David saith, Ps. 119:97, ‘Oh! how I love thy
law; it is my meditation all the day.’ Delightsome objects will engross
the thoughts. Therefore see if it be not a moral distemper.
(2.) Suppose it be a natural unfitness, yet while you have reason it is
not total and universal, and therefore cannot excuse.
We see in other duties, some have the gift of utterance, and have a great
savouriness and readiness of expression for prayer; others are more bound up
and restrained; but this can be no plea for them wholly to neglect prayer. Duty
must be done as we are able; God will hear the breathing, panting soul as well
as the rolling tongue. So it is in meditation; some are more musing, and can
better melt out their souls in devout retirements, others can show their love
better in zealous actions and public engagements for the glory of Christ; yet
still, thought there be a diversity of gifts, we are all bound to the same
duties, and though we be fitter for some rather than others, yet none must be
neglected in their order and course.
(3.) The rank and place that meditation hath among the duties. Meditation is
a middle sort of duty between the word and prayer, and hath respect to both.
The word feedth meditation and meditation feedeth prayer; we must hear that we
be nor erroneous, and meditate that we be not barren. These duties must always
go hand in hand; meditation must follow hearing and precede prayer.
(1st) To hear and not to meditate is unfruitful.
We may hear and hear, but it is like putting a thing into a bag with holes:
Hag. 1:6, ‘He that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with
holes;’ James 1:23, 24, ‘He is like unto a man beholding his natural
face in a glass; for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway
forgetteth what manner of man he was.’ Bare hearing begets but transient
thoughts, and they leave but a weak impression, which is rather like the glance
of a sunbeam upon a wall; there is a glaring for the present, but a man never
discerning the beauty, the luster, and the order of the truths delivered till
he cometh to meditate upon them; then we come clearly to see into the truth,
and how it concerneth us, and how it falleth upon our hearts. David saith, Ps.
119:99, ‘I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy
testimonies are my meditation.’ The preacher can but deliver general
theorems, and draw them down to practical inferences; by meditation we come to
see more clearly and pr actically than he that preacheth. We see, in outward
learning, they thrive best that meditate most; knowledge floateth, till by
deliberate thoughts it be compressed upon the affections.
(2nd) It is dangerous to meditate and not to hear because of errors.
Man will soon impose a deceit upon himself by his own thoughts. Fanatic spirits
that neglect hearing pretend to dreams and revelations. We have a sophister and
an heretic in our own bosoms, ‘ which soon deceiveth without a stock and
treasure of some knowledge;’ for men would be vain in their imaginations
were not their thoughts corrected by an external light and instruction. Jude
called those fanatic persons ‘enupniazomenoi’ filthy dreamers,
Jude 8. All practical errors are men’s natural imaginations gotten up into
a valuable opinion.
(3d.) It is rashness to pray and not to meditate.
What we take in by the word we digest by meditation and let out by prayer.
These three duties must be so ordered that one may not jostle out the other.
Men are barren, dry, and sapless in their prayers for want of exercising
themselves in holy thoughts: Ps. 45:1, ‘My heart is inditing a good
matter; and then it follows, ‘I will speak of the things which I have made
touching the King; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.' The heart yieldeth
matter to the tongue; the word signifieth, boileth and frieth; a word from
mincha, their meat-offering; the oil and the flour was to be kneaded
together, and then fried in a pan, and then offered to the Lord; implying we
must not come with raw dough- baked offerings, till we have concocted and
prepared them by mature deliberation. It is notable that often in scripture
prayer is called by the name of meditation because it is the product and issue
of it; as Ps. 5:1, ‘Give ear to my words O Lord: consider my
meditation.’ Implying that his prayer was but the expression of his
deliberate and premeditated thoughts. So Ps. 19:14, ‘Let the words of my
mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight O Lord, my
strength and my redeemer.’ It is the vent of the thoughts.
2. Whereby the mind is applied to the serious and solemn consideration.
I add this to distinguish it from occasional meditation, and those good
thoughts that accidentally rush into our minds, and to note the care and
intenseness of the soul in such an exercise: Prov. 18:1, ‘Through desire a
man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom; then
is a man fit for these solemn and holy thoughts, and for intermeddling with all
wise and divine matters, when he hath divorced himself from other cares, and is
able to keep his understanding under a prudent confinement.
3. Of spiritual things.
This noteth the object, and so I call matters that are of an useful
consideration; as for instance, God, that we may fear him; sin, that we may
abhor it; the works of God for the Creator’s glory; any useful subject. So
David limiteth it: Ps. 49:3, ‘My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the
meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.' He meaneth of the state and
end of man. Generally the object in the Old Testament is of the law.
4. For practical uses and inferences.
This noteth the end. Meditation is not to puzzle the head with notions, but to
better the heart. The proper use of this exercise is to set on those great
practical heads of religion, to work the heart to a greater care of duty and
detestation of sin. To a greater care of duty: Ps. 119:15, 'I will meditate in
thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways;’ and to a greater
detestation and hatred of sin: Ps.119:11, ‘Thy word have l hid in mine
heart that I might not sin against thee.'
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