CASE 4. When must we meditate?
1. In the general, something should be done every day; seldom converse begetteth a strangeness to God, and an unfitness for the duty. It is a description of God's servant, Ps.1:2, ' His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.' At least we should take all convenient occasions. It is an usual way of natural men to make conscience of duties after a long neglect; they perform duties to pacify a natural conscience, and use them as a man would use a sleepy potion or strong waters; they are good at a pinch, not for constant drink. Alas! we lose by such wide gaps and distances between performance and performance; it is as if we had never done it before.
2. For the particular time of the day when you should meditate, that is arbitrary. I told you before you may do it either in the silence of the night, when God hath drawn a curtain of darkness between you and the things of the world; or in the freshness of the morning, or in the evening, when the wildness and vanity of the mind is spent in worldly business.
3. There are some special solemn times, when the duty is most in season:
[1.] After a working sermon; after the word hath fallen upon you with a
full stroke, it is good to follow the blow; and when God hath cast seed into
the heart, let not the fowls peck it away : Matt 13:19, ' When any one
heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the
wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.' Ruminate on
the word, chew the end; many a sermon is lost because it is not whet upon the
thoughts: James 1: 23, 24, ' He is like a man that beholdeth his natural
face in a glass; for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway
forgetteth what manner of man he was:' Matt. 22: 22, ' When they heard
these things, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.' You should
roll the word in your thoughts, and deeply consider of it.
[2.] Before some solemn duties, as before the Lord's supper, and before
special times of deep humiliation, or before the sabbath. Meditation is, as
it were, the breathing of the soul; that it may the better hold out in
religious exercises, it is a good preparative to raise the spirits into a
frame of piety and religion. When the harp is fitted and tuned, it doth the
better make music; so when the heart is fixed and settled by a preparative
meditation, it is the fitter to make melody to God in worship.
[3.] When God doth specially revive and enable the Spirit. It is good to
take advantage of the Spirit's gales; so fresh a wind should make us hoist up
our sails. Do not lose the Spirit's seasons; the Spirit's impulses are good
significations from God that now is an acceptable time.
Case 5. What time is to be spent in the duty?
I answer - That is left to spiritual discretion. Suck the teat as long as milk cometh. Duties must not be spun out to an unnecessary length. You must neither yield to laziness, nor occasion spiritual weariness; the devil hath advantage upon you both ways. When you rack and torture your spirits after they have been spent, it makes the work of God a bondage; and therefore come not off till you find profit, and do not press too hard upon the soul, nor oppress it with an indiscreet zeal. It is Satan's policy to make you out of love with meditation by spinning it out to a tediousness and an unnecessary length.
Case 6. Whether should the time be set and constant?
I answer - It is good to bind the heart to somewhat, and yet leave it to such a liberty as becomes the gospel. Bind it to somewhat every day, that the heart may not be loose and arbitrary. We see that necessity quickeneth and urgeth, and when the soul is engaged it goes to work the more thoroughly. Therefore the Lord asks, Jer. 22:21, ' Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me?' It is good to lay a tie upon the heart; and yet I advise not to a set stinted hour, lest we create a snare to ourselves. Though a man should resist distractions and distempers, yet some business is unavoidable, and some distempers are invincible. I have observed this, that even religious persons are more sensible of their own vows than of God's commands; when men have bound up themselves in chains of their own making, their consciences fall upon them, and dog them with restless accusations, when they cannot accomplish so much duty as they have set and pre-scribed to themselves. And besides, when hours are customary and set, the heart groweth formal and superstitious.
Case 7. Are all bound to meditate ? are the ignorant ? are men of an unquiet nature ? are servants ? are ministers ?
1. Are the ignorant, and men of barren minds, that have not a good stock
of knowledge ? I answer - Yes, they are bound to this as well as other
duties, though they cannot do it well; it is their duty to strive that the word
of God may dwell richly in them. It is a mark of a godly man; every man is
bound to be skilful in the scriptures: Jer.31:34, ' They shall all know
me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord.' God hath
no child so little but he knows his father, therefore all are bound in some
measure to be able to discourse of God and of the things of God.
2. But some are of an unquiet nature, fit for public duties, but not for
private exercises; are they bound as well as those of softer spirits, and
fitter for meditation ? I answer - This is not temper, but distemper, the
unquiet spirit must not totaliter cessare, wholly discontinue this work.
They are to mind wherein they may serve God most, but not totally desist from a
work so necessary, and of such great importance.
3. Are servants bound to it, whose time is not their own ? I answer
- They should do what they can; God is more merciful to them, but those
that are in bondage to others may find some leisure for God.
4. Are ministers obliged ? Their whole work is a study, their em-ployment is
a continual meditation. I answer - There is a difference between meditation
and study. In study we mind the good of others, in meditation the good of
our own souls. Things work with us according to our end and the aims that we
propose to ourselves. Public teaching is no such trial of our hearts; there is
a natural pride in us to urge us to teach others, and that makes so many
intrude into the ministry; there is some kind of authority in it, that we
exercise over others; but we are to mind the good of our own souls, and to
regard private duties. There is a greater engagement upon us than others,
because we have the help of art and education, and have greater advantages than
others, and therefore we should not lose so sweet a comfort. It is strange that
papists confine it altogether to spiritual men, as if it were not a lay duty,
and usually we lay it aside, as if study would serve the turn, and it did not
belong to us.
My work is now to speak of the object of meditation, which I am first to handle in general, and then in special.
First, In the general consideration of the object I am to
speak -
(1.) Of the choice of the object;
(2.) The manner of how to work upon it.
1. For the choice of the object, I need not press you to choose that which is seasonable, and what suiteth with your own case. A sermon worketh more forcibly when it is suitable, so do thoughts when they are seasonable, and direct to the present case of the soul: Ps.94:19, ' In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul;' he meaneth sad thoughts, then it was his advantage to exercise himself in seasonable comforts, like a shower of rain on new-mown grass; it would be burnt up with the drought, which if rain had come seasonably might have flourished and grown up with a fair herbage; so the soul is parched with a temptation, if it be not watered with suitable thoughts. ' We faint not,' saith the apostle, ' for we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are not seen,' 2 Cor. 4:16-18, viz., by reviving our Christian hopes; and therefore the exigencies of the soul must be served. Food in thirst doth enrage rather than please. It is not enough to consider what is good, but what is seasonable. Things mistimed and misplaced lose their force and operation; as the blood when it is in vessels is the continent of life, but when it is out it breedeth diseases, so truths out of their order and place do not nourish the heart, but oppress it; as if you should talk of hell and the severity of God's judgment to those that are dejected, this were to speak to the grief of those whom God hath wounded, and when the back is ready to break to lay on more load.
I shall for the present (having spoken largely in the general directions) give you but two rules -
[1.] Choose that which is profitable. There is a great deal of difference between the objects of meditation; some are more speculative, others altogether practical. There are matters speculative revealed in the word which yet have their use and profit; as the fall of the angels, the order of providence, &c.; yet out of these the heart may distil matter of practical use and profit. All the benefit we receive from these truths lieth in our meditation of them. But then there are others that are altogether practical, and these should chiefly be chosen. The mind of man is the mill of God, not to grind chaff, but wheat. Matters practical are there to be ground for bread to the soul; they that hunt after fancies do but misemploy their thoughts, and beat chaff into dust, and do not grind good corn for nourishment; and that is the reason why many times mean Christians excel those of the best gifts, because they spend their time in subtle inventions and inquiries, and whilst we strive to be more subtle they are more sincere. Oh! consider the soul is diseased while it is only fed with quails and fine notions; there is more delicacy but less nourishment. Notions that are airy tickle the fancy, and move the lighter part of the affections, but those considerations that are grave and masculine convince most soundly, and work most deeply: ' Wisdom entereth into the heart,' Prov. 2:10. Look, as wicked men do not please themselves in abstractions of sin, they devise wickedness to accomplish it, so the Christian should not satisfy himself with nice speculations, but employ his thoughts about practical matters to promote holiness in his heart and life.
[2.] Choose matters to meditate upon in an orderly and apt method.
But you will say, Do you think this useful to confine the soul to method in
meditation, to prescribe a set course to ourselves ? Shall we not jostle out
seasonable thoughts ? I answer -
(1.) It is lawful and necessary to prescribe to ourselves a course and method, partly that we may know our work, and that we may not be to seek both of a subject and how to work upon it; therefore, that you may keep your religious exercises together, and know how to pass from one to another, it is good to keep a set course. Partly because things work with us according to method; it is the way of knowledge and affection; the soul finds it an excellent advantage when things are aptly suited and ranked in their order. God himself hath disposed all his works in order, so should we ours. You will find an advantage when you take your rise low, and go on from matters more plain and obvious to those that are more mysterious. There are shallows for the lambs of God, and there are deeps for those of an higher growth and stature. You must pass from the most obvious matter of Christianity to those that are of more sublime speculation. The rise of the sun is first low, and gildeth with its beams the eastern parts, and then riseth higher to the top of the heavens ; so in your progress there are the third heavens to which you must ascend, but first you must pass the first and second heavens. Before we search the depths of the Spirit, it is good to search the depths of the belly (I compare Paul's expression with Solomon's), to begin with the knowledge of ourselves before we come to the knowledge of God. Prius redi ad te quam rimari praesumas quce supra te, is a rule of Bernard, who was of much experience in these exercises; first return to ourselves, and by an orderly progress to go on from examination of ourselves, before we soar up to the contemplation of the divine glory. You know what Christ saith, John 3:12, ' If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things ?' They were spiritual matters he spake of, regeneration and principles of religion; yet in comparison of deeper mysteries of religion, and because he had set them out by earthly similitudes of generation, water and the wind, he called them 'earthly things.' Christ trained up his own disciples this way ; first he begins with plain matters : John 16:12, ' I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them yet.' There were greater mysteries above the reach and size of their present capacity. So the apostle Paul speaketh of wisdom for them that are perfect: 1 Cor. 2:6, ' Howbeit we speak wisdom to them that are perfect;' that is, for them that had made some progress in religion ; perfect, not absolutely, but in comparison with babes and novices. Therefore it is good, with Mary, to sit at the feet of Jesus, and not presently with the spouse to beg the kisses of his mouth, but to go on by degrees.
(2.) Though we must contrive a method and course, yet there must be a liberty left for things, for all seasons and occasions. As in the world, though a man hath disposed his business, yet he reserveth a liberty for incidental and unthought of occasions; so in these spiritual matters, and in the course of religious exercises, you must not bind up yourselves from these occasions. I shall name four -
(1st.) Working and forcible sermons. It is not good to lose the heat that we have gotten at the word, but to go home and chew the cud. In the word there is ingestion; in meditation you turn it into nourishment. There must be a time for concoction, and when the seed is scattered, it must be covered.
(2nd) For present impulses, keep yourselves free, that you may not lose the advantage of such impulses. Many times Christ cometh ' leaping upon the mountains, and skipping upon the hills,' Song of Solomon 2:8. He impelleth our hearts on a sudden and unlocked for, by causing holy thoughts to shoot into our minds; by representing our unworthiness, coldness, and deadness of life; or else he inflameth us by representing the beauty and loveliness of grace. Then it is good those thoughts should take the next turn, and our method must give way to God's dispensation. As general nature altereth its course in some great particular exigencies, fire descendeth, and water ascendeth, so in this case the general work must be interrupted. It is a kind of resisting God not to entertain these motions; I do not mean when they come upon you in the necessary work of your callings, but only that they may have the next turn.
(3d) For remarkable providences, when God casteth us upon such objects as stir up special veneration and reverence, as some marvellous events, or creatures that discover his wisdom and glory, or sudden death of one near us, it is of excellent use while such experiences are warm to go home and consider of them; as Waldo, a rich merchant of Lyons, was conversing with a friend, and he fell down dead, and presently he went home, and thought of the uncertainty of life, and the necessity of providing for a future state, and God blessed these thoughts for his conversion. Or else the sad falls of a person eminent for religion, when we see some glorious star fall like lightning from heaven, these are accidents that must not be passed over without some mark and consideration, and then God doth as it were call you off from your usual thoughts.
(4th) The present exigence of the Spirit. Choose that which is seasonable, and what suits with your own case; a sermon works more forcibly when it is seasonable. Thus David: Ps. 94:19, ' In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.' He means his sad thoughts; it was an advantage to him then to solace himself with those comforts God had provided. The scripture useth this similitude of rain upon new-mown grass. Rain when it comes seasonably refresheth the grass and causes it to spring up, which otherwise would be burnt up with the drought and heat of the season; so the soul would be parched with a temptation if it be not watered with seasonable thoughts. But I have spoken to this point before.
But you will say, What is the method that we should use ?
Ans. Though I cannot exactly prescribe it, yet give me leave to advise -
(1.) For those that are wholly to begin this duty, it is best first to
meditate about meditation, the nature, use, and excellency of it, and how
they may carry it on with success; it is a good preparative to the whole work.
I do direct you to this course, because this is that which the soul standeth in
need of; this will lay a charge and necessity upon the soul. As to pray is a
good preparative to prayer, so to meditate on meditation is a good preparative
to meditation. To quicken you, consider the motives alleged, and when you
have done all, say, O soul! do but go and try ! O Lord! help me, and keep this
up in the thoughts of thy servant!
(2.) For the general method, it is good to keep the method of the
Spirit. The method of meditation should follow that of God's dispensation
: John 16:8, 'When the Spirit is come, he shall reprove the world of sin
and of righteousness and of judgment.' First begin with sin, which is more easy
and familiar to the understanding ; it is good to lay the foundation of all in
the mortifying and purgative way ; and then go to righteousness, and after the
extermination of sin we shall be fitter to entertain the love of God, and then
go to judgment.
Take another method; first consider the great end of man, that you may
come to yourselves ; then the evil of sin, that you may bemoan and avoid it;
then the miseries of the world, or the vanity of the creature, that you may
contemn it; then the horrors of death, the severity of judgment, the torment of
hell, that you may prevent it; then the excellences of Christ, the privileges
of the godly, the rare contrivance of the gospel; then of providence, of
heaven, of God and his attributes, his power, his wisdom, his eternity,
etc…, with suitable scriptures for each of these.
2. For the manner how you must work upon these objects.
[1.] There must be pregnant thoughts and apprehensions. Deep consideration begins the work; you must set your hearts to consider the subject, for when the heart is once set, these thoughts through the blessing of God will come in freely. It is often spoken in scripture of setting our hearts to seek the Lord ; when the heart is set for prayer, God comes in with a great enlargement; so when the heart is set to consider, you will have serious and solemn thoughts. If vain thoughts trouble you and interpose, yet still set the heart and go on; as a man in a journey, though dogs come out and bark upon him, he rideth on; to run after every cur would be a great hindrance and diversion ; so if you stand quarrelling with ever vain thought, you lose your purpose, and so the devil will gain that by a reflex act which you seek to reject in a direct act; as criers in a court in calling for silence many times make the greatest noise. Mr Greenham was wont to lift up his heart in a short ejaculation, and so go on.
[2.] There are serious enforcements and rational inculcations.
Things barely propounded do not work; it is by lively reasons they are whetted
upon the soul. Look, as it is in going to sea, those that only mind passage do
not stay upon the ocean, and therefore do not fetch up the treasures of the
great deep, but those that go to fish cast out the net again and again, so must
you ; you must cast in reason upon reason, enforcement upon enforcement, till
you bring up treasure, cast on weight upon weight till it weigh down.
Now these rational enforcements are four - by arguments, similitudes,
comparison, colloquies or soliloquies.
(1.) By arguments that are most effective. Inquire what kind of arguments have most force upon the spirits. The usual arguments you should look after are causes and effects; by the one knowledge is increased, and by the other affections are stirred. Do not emptily declame, but see that your eye may affect your heart. Choose such arguments as are evident and strong; you have them in the word and in sermons, and you should have them in your hearts: Luke 6:45, ' A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.' A good man should be able to bring forth good arguments, that he might bring his heart powerfully to the acknowledgment of the will of God; for what did God give you faculties, and the use of reason and discourse, and such helps in the ministry, but for such a purpose?
(2.) By similitudes. The word will furnish you upon every point. Heaven speaketh to us in a dialect of earth. Heavenly mysteries are clothed with a fleshly notion. In the Song of Solomon communion with Christ is set forth by banquets and marriages, and spiritual things are shadowed out by corporal fairness and sweetness. In other places of scripture Christ's kingdom is set forth by an earthly kingdom, the word of God by a glass, the wrath of God by fire. Now apt similitudes have a great force upon the soul for two reasons - partly because they help apprehension, and partly because they help discourse. There is as it were a picture for the thoughts to gaze upon. By similitudes we come to understand a spiritual thing that we know not, being represented by sensible things with which they are acquainted; the thing is twice represented to the soul - in reality and in picture, as a double medium helpeth the sight, the glass and the air in spectacles; a shilling in a basin of water seemeth bigger, so it is here. Yea, they yield matter for much enlargement, and help discourse, as when they brought God the blind and the lame : Mal. 1:8, ' Offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person ? saith the Lord of hosts.' Sin is expressed by death; now the soul may reason thus: I tremble at death, why do I not tremble at sin? So mortification is physic; I can dispense with the trouble of physic for my body, this will make my soul healthy.
(3.) By comparisons, wherein other things are like or unlike the things we meditate upon. I urge this because it is a natural help; it is a rule of nature that contraries being put together do mightily illustrate one another; as when you compare fairness and deformity, black and white, deformity is more odious, and black is more black. So if I would contemplate the beauty of virtue and of the spiritual life, I would compare it with the filthiness of vice, and of the profane life. So when you compare the pleasant path of wisdom with the filthy and dreggy delights that are in the path of sin, you gain upon the soul. Put earthly things into the scales with heavenly, and see which weigheth heaviest, set heaven against hell, and heaven against the world. Our Saviour teacheth us to meditate by way of comparison : Mat. 16:26,' For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? ' So by comparing yourselves with other creatures, as thus; when you would shame yourselves for your disobedience, you may argue thus: All things obey the law of their creation, the sun delighteth to run his race, the stars keep their course, and do not go beside the path God hath set them, and I only have found out my own path. So for your uncomfortableness in the ways of God; you may say, Wicked men delight to do wickedly, but I do not delight in the service of God; shall it not be a pleasure to me to be exercised in the duties of religion ? shall I not rejoice in the Lord?
(4.) By colloquies and soliloquies ; colloquies and speeches with
God, and soliloquies with ourselves. Thoughts are more express and formal, but
when turned into words and speeches, it is a sign the affections are stirred.
Strong affections must have vent in words; speech is an help in secret
prayer.
(1st.) In colloquies with God, either by way of complaint: Lord, I am
poor, and needy, and worldly. Lord, my heart is naked, and void of grace. Or
else by way of request; as the infant will show the apple or jewel, or whatever
it hath received, to the parent or nurse, so the soul representeth to God
whatever it hath gotten by meditation, and taketh occasion further to converse
with God, and beg grace of him.
(2nd) In soliloquies with your own souls, and these are either by way of
urging the heart or charging it.
(1.) By way of urging the heart. As suppose you have been meditating on
the glorious salvation that was purchased by Jesus Christ, let this be the
close of all, ' How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?'
Heb.2:3. So if you have been meditating on the sinfulness of sin, fall
upon your own hearts: Rom. 6:21, ' What fruit shall we have in those
things whereof ye are now ashamed, for the end of those things is death ?' Or
if you have been meditating of hell and the wrath of God, speak to your heart:
Ezek.22:14, ' Can thy heart endure, or can thine hand be strong in the
day that I shall deal with thee? 'Art thou stronger than God, that thou canst
wrestle with him? Or if you have been meditating on your sinfulness, or the
course of your own wicked lives, you may return upon your heart: Micah
6:8,' He hath showed, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require
of thee;' and ver. 6, ' Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself
before the high God ? ' How shall I get a ransom to redeem my soul from the
guilt of sin?
(2.) By way of charge and command. Suppose you have been meditating of
the benefit of God's service, and the danger of going a-whoring from him:
Hosea 2:7, ' She shall say, I will go and return to my first husband,
for then was it better with me than now.' Or if you have been meditating of the
benefits of God to your souls, you may return upon your hearts by way of
charge: Ps. 116:7, 'Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath
dealt bountifully with me.' God hath opened his good treasure to thee, this
hath been thy potion, therefore 'Return unto thy rest.' Well, then,
thus do, and then be watchful that you do not lose what you have wrought. Isaac
digged wells and the Philistines dammed then up; so when the soul hath digged a
well of salvation, Satan will seek to dam it up; therefore be watchful.
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