of grace is call'd a free Spirit Psal 51. not only because it works freely but because it makes the heart free and cheerful in obedience a gracious heart doth not act by pure constraint but free consent Considerat 4 4. Delight in Religion will make the businesse of Religion more facil to us Delectatio conservat operantem in opere suo A quinas Arist Eth. lib. 10. Delight makes every thing easie there 's nothing hard to a willing minde Trahit sua quemque voluptas delight turnes Religion into recreation 't is like fire to the sacrifice like oyle to the wheeles like winde to the sailes it carries us full saile in duty he that delights in Gods way will never complaine of the ruggednesse of the way a childe that is going to his fathers house doth not complain of bad way A Christian is going to heaven in the way of duty every prayer every Sacrament he is a step nearer his Fathers house sure he is so full of joy he is going home that he will not complain of bad way Get then this holy delight Beloved we have not many miles to go death will shorten our way let delight sweeten it Considerat 5 5. All the duties in Religion are for our good We shall have the benefit If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self Prov. 9.12 God hath twisted his glory and our good together I gave them my statutes which if a man do he shall even live in them Ezek. 20.11 There is nothing the Lord requires but it tends to self-preservation God bids us read his Word and why this Word is his Will and Testament wherein he makes over a fair estate to be settled upon us Col. 1.12 1 Joh. 2.25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life he bids us pray and this duty carries meat in the mouth of it 1 John 5.14 This is the confidence we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us Ask what you will he will signe your petitions if you had a friend that should say come to me when you will I will furnish you with money would you not delight to visit that friend God will give to more than half the kingdom and shall we not delight in prayer God bids us beleeve and there is 〈◊〉 a honey-comb to be found in this precept Beleeve you shal be saved Salvation is the crown that is set upon the head of faith Well may the Apostle say his Commandments are not grievous O then if Religion be so beneficial if there be such gold to be digg'd out of this mine it may make us delight in the wayes of God What wil tempt if not self-interest Considerat 6 6. How did Christ delight in the work of our redemption Lo I come I delight to do thy will O my God Ps 40.7 8. 'T is by Expositors agreed that it is spoken mystically of Christ * Ecce venio videl Ego Messias ad sum promissus salvator qui tanquam vadis se sistit ad solvendum dobitum me tibi offero tau quam sacrificium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mollerus when he came into the world to sacrifice his life for us it was a free will-offering I have a baptisme to be baptised with Luke 12.50 Christ was to be as it were baptiz'd in his own blood and how did he thirst for that time How am I straitned * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till it be accomplished Did Christ so delight in the work of our redemption and shall not we delight in his service Did he suffer willingly and do we pray unwillingly Did he so cheerfully lay down his life for us and shall nor we give up our lives to him Certainly if any thing could make Christ repent of shedding his blood it would be this to see Christians come off so hardly in duty bringing it rather as a pennance then a sacrifice Considerat 7 7. Delight in Gods service makes us resemble the Angels in heaven They serve God with chearfulnesse as soon as God speaks the Word they are ambitious to obey How are they ravish'd with delight while they are praising God in heaven we shall be as the Angels spiritual delight would make us like them here to serve God by constraint is to be like the devil all the devils in hell obey God but it is against their will they yeeld a passive obedience * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophil but service which comes off with delight is angelical This is that we pray for that Gods will may be done on earth as it is in heaven is it not done with delight there Considerat 8 8. This delight in Gods Law will not breed surfeit Carnal objects do oft cause a loathing and nauseating we soone grow weary of our delights * Rerum juvenilium velox transmutatio Thom. Aqu. Eth. hence it is we change from one sense to another from colours to musick from musick to smell c. Too much pleasure is a paine but spiritual objects do not cloy or tyre the soul the more we study in the Law of God still the more delight we finde And in this regard David might say the Words of Gods mouth were sweeter to his taste than honey Psal 119.103 because one may soon surfeit upon honey but he can never surfeit with the Word of God He that hath once with Jeremy found the Word and ate it Jer. 15.16 will not be cloyd with it * Augent spirituales delitiae desiderium in mente dum satiant Greg. hom There 's that savourinesse in the Word that a Christian cries out Lord evermore give me this bread * Joh. 6.34 There is that sweetnesse in communion with God that the soul saith with Saint Bernard O si duraret O that it might be always thus O that what I now feel I might ever feel He that delights in God doth not complaine he hath too much of God but rather too little he opens and spreads the sailes of his soul to take in more of those heavenly gales he longs for that time when he shall be ever delighting himself in the sweet and blessed vision of God Consider 9 9. Without this holy delight we weary our selves and we weary God too Isa 7.13 Will ye weary my God also our delighting in God would make him delight in us but when we begin to say what a wearinesse is it to serve the Lord Mal. 1.13 God is as weary as we are he is even sick of such services When duties are a burden to us they are a burden to God and what should he do with them when a man is weary of a burden he will cast it off Let all this quicken delight in Gods service CHAP. VIII Shewing how a Christian may arive at this delight in Gods Law Use 4 Direct FOr the attaining this blessed delight in the Law of God three things are requisite 1. Set
way of duty CHAP. IV. Shewing a characteristical difference between a childe of God and an hypocrite Use 1 IT shews us a discriminating difference between a childe of God and an hypocrite the one serves God cum animi prolubio from a principle of delight the other doth not The Law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold silver Psalm 119.72 With what delight doth a covetous man tell over his thousands I but Gods Law was better to David than thousands a child of God looks upon the service of God not only as his duty but his priviledge A gracious heart loves every thing that hath the stamp of God upon it The Word is his delight Thy Words were found and I did eat them and thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoycing of my heart Jerem. 15.16 The Sabbath is his delight Isaiah 58.13 If thou turne away thy foot from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight Prayer is his delight Isa 56.7 I will make them joyful in my house of prayer Hearing is his delight Esay 60.8 Who are these that flie as Doves to to the windows The gracious soul flies as a Dove to an Ordinance upon the wings of delight The Sacrament is his delight On this day the Lord makes a feast of fat things a feast of wines on the Lees of fat things full of marrow of wines on the lees well refined Esay 25.6 A Sacrament-day is a soul-festival day here Christ takes the soul into his banqueting-house and displays the banner of love over it Cant. 2.4 Here are dulcissima fercula as Austin saith heavenly delicacies set before us Christ gives us his body and blood * In vulneribus Christi dormio securus requiesco intrepidus Aug. This is Angels food this is the heavenly Nectar here is a cup perfum'd with the divine nature * Sanguis Christi salus Christiani Salvian here is wine spiced with the love of God The Jews at their feasts poured oyntment upon their guests and kissed them Here Christ poures the oyle of gladness into the heart and kisses us with the kisses of his lips * Cant. 1.2 This is the Kings Bath where we wash and are cleansed of our leprosie The withered soul after the receiving this blessed Eucharist hath been like a watered garden Esay 58.11 or like those Egyptian fields after the overflowing of Nilus fruitful and flourishing and do you wonder that a childe of God delights in holy things He must needs be a volunteer in Religion But it is not thus with an hypocrite though he may facere bonum yet not velle he may be forced to do that which is good but not to will that which is good he doth not serve God with delight Job 27.10 Will he delight himselfe in the Almighty That he hath none of this complacency and delight appears thus because he serves God grudgingly * Vir'us nolentium nulla est he brings his sacrifice with a wicked minde Prov. 21.27 Such an one was Cain It was long before he brought his offering * Gen. 4.3 it was not the first fruits and when he did bring it it was grudgingly 't was not a free-will-offering Deut. 16.10 'T is probable 't was the custome of his fathers family to sacrifice and perhaps conscience might check him for forbearing so long at last the offering is brought but how as a task rather than a duty as a mulct or fine rather than a sacrifice Cain brought his offering but not himself What Seneca saith of a gift I may say of a sacrifice * Multum interest in ter materi am benefi cii beneficium itaque nec aurum nec argentum beneficium est sed ipsa tribuentis voluntas Sen. de benef 'T is not gold and silver makes a gift but a willing minde if this be wanting the gold is only parted with not given So 't is not prayer and hearing makes a sacrifice but it is a willing minde Cains was not an offering but a tax not worship but pennance CHAP. V. Two Cases of conscience resolved BUt here are two Cases to be put Case 1 1. Whether a regenerate person may not serve God with wearinesse Answ 1 Answ Yes but 1. this delight in God is not wholly extinct This lassitude and wearinesse in a childe of God may arise From the in being of corruption Rom. 7.24 'T is not from the grace that is in him but the sinne as Peters sinking on the water was not from his faith but his fear yet I say still a regenerate persons will is for God Rom. 7.15 Paul found sometimes an indisposition to good Rom. 7.23 yet at the same time he professeth a complacency in God ver 22. I delight in the Law of God in the inner man one may delight in musick or any recreation yet through wearinesse of body be for the present dull'd and indisposed a Christian may love Gods Law though sometimes the clog of the flesh weighing him down he findes his former vigour and agility remitted Answ 2 2. I answer that this faintnesse and wearinesse in a regenerate person is not habitual 't is not his constant temper when the water ebbes a while it is low-water but there is soon a spring-tyde againe it is sometimes low-water in a Christians soul he findes an indisposition and irksomness to that which is good but within a while there is a spring-tyde of affection and the soule is carried full saile in holy duties 'T is with a Christian as with a man that is distempered when he is sick he doth not take that delight in his food as formerly nay sometimes the very sight of it offends but when he is well he falls to his meat again with delight and appetite so when the soule is distempered through sadnesse and melancholy it findes not that delight in Word and Prayer 〈…〉 erly but when it returnes to its healthful temper again now it hath the same delectability and cheerfulnesse in Gods service as before Answ 3 3. I answer That this wearinesse in a regenerate person is involuntary he is troubled at it he doth not hug his disease but mournes under it He is weary of his wearinesse When he findes a heavinesse in duty he goes heavily under that heavinesse he prays weeps wrastles useth all means to regain that alacrity in Gods service as he was wont to have David when his chariot-wheels were pull'd off and he did drive on heavily in Religion how oft doth he pray for quickning grace Psalme 119.25 37 40 88. When the Saints have found their hearts fainting their affections flagging and a strange kinde of lethargy seasing on them they never leave till they have recovered themselves and arrived at that freedome and delight in God as they were once sencible of 2. The second Case is Case 2 whether an hypocrite may not serve God with delight I answer he may Herod heard John Baptist
hinders the sight when worldly thoughts as motes are gotten into the minde which is the eye of the soul it cannot look up so stedfastly to heaven by contemplation Therefore as when Abraham went to sacrifice he left his servant and the Asse at the bottom of the hill Gen. 22.5 So when a Christian is going up the hill of meditation he should leave all secular cares at the bottome of the hill that he may be alone and take a turne in heaven If the wings of the bird are full of lime she cannot â—â—iâ— Meditation is the wing of the soul when a Christian is belimed with earth he cannot she to God upon this wing Saint Bernard when he came to the Church-door used to say stay here all my worldly thoughts that I may converse with God in the Temple so say to thy self I am going now to meditate O all ye vaine thoughts stay behind come not neare When thou art going up the mount of meditation take heed the world doth not follow thee and throw thee down from the top of this pinacle This is the first thing the souls retiring of it selfe lock and bolt the doore against the world 2. The second thing in meditation is a serious and solemn thinking upon God The Hebrew word to meditate * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies with intensenesse to recollect and gather together the thoughts Meditation is not a cursory work to have a few transient thoughts of Religion Canis ad Nilum like the dogs of Nilus that lap and away but there must be in meditation a fixing the heart upon the object a steeping the thoughts carnal Christians are like quick-silver which cannot be made to fix their thoughts are roving up down and will not fix like the bird that hops from one bough to another and stays no where David was a man fit to meditate O God my heart is fixed Ps 108.1 Psalme 108.1 In meditation there must be a staying of the thoughts upon the object a man that rides post through a Town or Village he mindes nothing but an Artist or Limner that is looking on a curious piece views the whole draught and pourtraiture of it he observes the symmetry and proportion he mindes every shadow and colour A carnal slitting Christian is like the traveller his thoughts ride post he mindes nothing of God a wise Christian is like the Artist he views with feriousnesse and ponders the things of Religion Luke 2.19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur de aiâ—â— quo secum dissertante Grotius in loc them in her heart The third thing in meditation is the raising of the heart to holy affections A Christian enters into meditation as a man enters into the Bath that he may be healed Meditation heales the soule of its deadnesse and earthlinesse but more of this after CHAP. III. Proving Meditation to be a duty MEditation is a duty lying upon every Christian and there is no disputing our duty Meditation is a Duty Meditation a duty 1. Imposed 2. Opposed 1. Meditation is a duty imposed It is not arbitrary there is a jus divinum in it The same God who hath bid us beleeve hath bid us meditate Josh 1.8 This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night These words though spoken to the person of Joshuah yet they concerne every one as the promise made to Joshuah concerned all beleevers Joshuah 1.5 compar'd with Heb. 13.5 So this precept made to the person of Joshuah thou shalt meditate in this book of the Law takes in all Christians it is the part of an hypocrite to enlarge the promise and to streighten the precept Thou shalt meditate in this book of the Law the word Thou is indefinite and reacheth every Christian As Gods Word doth direct so his will must enforce obedience 2 Meditation is a duty opposed We may conclude it is a good duty because it is against the stream of corrupt nature as he said you may know that Religion is right which Nero persecutes so you may know that is a good duty which the heart opposeth We shall finde naturally a strange aversenesse from meditation We are swift to heare but slow to meditate To think of the world if it were all day long is delightful but as for holy meditation how doth the heart wrangle and quarrel with this duty It is doing of pennance now truly there needs no other reason to prove a duty to be good than the reluctancy of a carnal heart To instance in the duty of self-denial Let a man deny himself Mat. 16.24 self-denial is as necessary as heaven but what disputes are raised in the heart against it What to deny my reason and become a fool that I may be wise nay not only to deny my reason but my righteousnesse What to cast it over-board and swim to heaven upon the plank of Christs merits this is such a duty that the heart doth naturally oppose and enter its dissent against This is an argument to prove the duty of self-denial good just so it is with this duty of meditation the secret antipathy the heart hath against it shews it to be good and this is reason enough to enforce meditation CHAP. IV. Shewing how meditation differs from memory THe memory a glorious faculty which Aristotle calls the souls scribe sits and pens all things that are done Whatsoever we read or hear the memory doth register therefore God doth all his works of wonder that they may be had in remembrance There seemes to be some Analogy and Resemblance between Meditation and Memory But I conceive there is a double difference 1. The meditation of a thing hath more sweetnesse in it than the bare remembrance The memory is the chest or cupboard to lock up a truth meditation is the pallate to feed on it the memory is like the Ark in which the Manna was laid up meditation is like Israels eating of Manna When David began to meditate on God it was sweet to him as marrow Psal 63.5 6. There 's as much difference between a truth remembred and a truth meditated on as between a cordial in a glasse and a cordial drunk down 2. The remembrance of a truth without the serious Meditation of it will but create matter of sorrow another day What comfort can it be to a man when he comes to die to think he remembred many excellent notions about Christ but never had the grace so to meditate on them as to be transformed into them A Sermon remembred but not ruminated will only serve to encrease our condemnation CHAP. V. Shewing how Meditation differs from Study THe Students life looks like meditation but doth vary from it Meditation and study differ three ways 1. They differ in their nature Study is a work of the braine meditation of the heart study sets the invention on work meditation sets the
the Physitian having given him such stupifying physick that for the most part he dies of a Lethargy 3. The Lawyer meditates upon the common Law but as for Gods law he seldom Meditates in it either day or night the lawyer while he is Meditating on his clients evidences often forgets his own most of this Robe have their spiritual evidences to seek when they should have them to show The trades-man is for the most part Meditating upon his wares and drugs his study is how he may encrease his estate and make the ten talents an hundred He is cumbred about many things he doth not Meditate in the book of Gods law but in his account-book day and night At the long run you will see these were fruitless Meditations you will find that you are but golden beggars and have gotten but the fooles purchase when you dye Luke 12.20 5. There is another sort that Meditate onely upon mischief who devise iniquity Mic. 2.1 they Meditate how to defame and to defraud James 8.5 they make the Epha small and the shekel great The Epha was a measure used in buying the shekel a weight used in selling they know how to collude sophisticate Christians who should support too often supplant one another and how many Meditate revenge t is sweet to them as dropping honey as Homer speaks Their hearts shall meditate terrour Isaiah 33.18 the sinner is a fellon to himself and God will make him a terrour to himself Jer. 20.4 CHAP. X. An holy perswasive to Meditation USE 3. I Am in the next place to exhort Christians to this so necessary duty of Meditation If ever there were a duty I would press upon you with more earnestness zeal it should be this because so much of the vitals and spirits of Religion lies in it The plant may as well bear fruit without watering the meat may as well nourish without digesting as we can fructifie in holinesse without Meditation God provides the meat Ministers can but cook and dresse it for you Meditation must make the concoction for want of this you may cry out as the Prophet Isa 24.16 My leanness my leanness wo unto me Oh let me perswade such as fear God seriously to set upon this duty If you have formerly neglected it bewail your neglect and now begin to make conscience of it Lock up your selves with God at least once a day by holy Meditation Ascend this Hill and when you are gotten to the top of it you shall see a fair prospect Christ and heaven before you Let me put you in minde of that sweet saying of Bernard * O sancta anima fuge publi cum fuge domesticos an nescis te verecundum habere sponsum qui nequaquam suam velit tibi indulgere praesentiam praesentibus caeteris Ber serm 40. in Can. O Saint knowest thou not that thy husband Christ is bashfull and will not be familiar in company retire thy self by meditation into the closet or the field and there thou shalt have Christs embraces Cant. 7.11 12. Come my Beloved let us go forth into the field there will I give thee my loves O that I might invite Christians to this rare duty Why is it that you do not Meditate in Gods Law Let me expostulate the case with you what is the Reason My thinks I hear some say we are indeed convinced of the necessity of the duty but alas there are many things that hinder There are two great objections lye in the way I shall remove them and then hope the better to perswade to this duty CHAP. XI The answering of Objections Object 1. I Have so much business in the world that I have no time to Meditate Answ The World indeed is a great enemy to Meditation 'T is easie to lose ones purse in a croud and in a croud of worldly employments 't is easy to lose all the thoughts of God So long as the heart is an Exchange I do not expect it should be a Temple but to answer the objection Hast thou so much business that thou hast no time for Meditation as if Religion were but by the bye a thing fit only for idle hours What no time to Meditate What is the business of thy life but Meditation God never sent us into the world to get riches I speak not against labour in a calling but I say this is not the end of our coming hither The errand God sent us into the world about is salvation and that we may attain the end we must use the means viz. Holy Meditation Now hast thou no time to Meditate just as if a husband-man should say truly he hath so much business that he hath no time to plough or sow why what is his occupation but plowing and sowing what a madness is it to hear Christians say they have no time to Meditate What is the business of their lives but Meditation Oh take heed lest by growing rich you grow worth nothing at last Take heed that God doth not sue out the Statute of Bankerupt against you and you be disgraced before men and Angels no time for Meditation you shall observe that others in former ages have had as much business as you and publick affairs to look after yet they were called upon to Meditate Joshua 1.8 Thou shalt Meditate in this book of the Law Joshua might have pleaded an excuse he was a Souldier a Commander and the care of marshalling his army lay chiefly upon him yet this must not take him off from Religion Joshua must Meditate in the book of Gods law God never intended That the great business of Religion should give way to a shop or farm or that a particular calling should justle out the General 2. Obj. But this duty of Meditation is hard To set time apart every day to get the heart into a Meditating frame is very difficult Gerson reports of himself that he was sometimes three or four houres before he could work his heart into a spiritual frame Answ Doth this hinder To this I shall give a threefold Reply 1. The price that God hath set heaven at is labor our salvation cost Christ bloud it may well cost us sweat * Plurimi mollitie quadam animi â—e fugiun sudorem quem stbi in pere quendâ faelicitate imaginantur malunt brevi huius vitae curriculo suis indulgeâ—eâ—upâ—inibus a eam futurerum subive quam labâ—rem susciper porteà vitam praestolari aeternam Marcell armamentarij scientis lib. 2. The Kingdome of heaven suffers violence Matth. 11 12. It is as a garrison that holds out and the duties of Religion are the taking it by storm a good Christian must offer violence to himselfe though not self natural yet self-sinful Self is nothing but the flesh * Gal. 5.17 as Basil Hierom Theophylact and Chrysostome do all expound it The flesh cries out for ease 't is a Libertine T is loath to take pains loath to pray to repent
that is elevated by holy meditation will not set his heart there where his feet should be upon the earth 7. Holy meditation banisheth vain and sinful thoughts it purgeth the Phancy * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost How long shall vain thoughts lodg within thee Jer. 4.14 The mind is the shop or work house where sin is first framed Sin begins at the thoughts The thoughts are the first plotters and contrivers of evil The mind fancy is a stage where sin is first acted the malicious man acts over sin in his thoughts he contemplates revenge The impure person acts over concupicence in his thoughts he contemplates lust The Lord humble us for our contemplative wickedness Pr. 30.32 If thou hast thought evil lay thy hand upon thy mouth How much sin do men commit in the chamber of their imagination now meditating in Gods law would be a good means to banish these sinful thoughts If David had carried the book of the law about him and meditated in it he had not looked on Bathsheba with a lascivious eye 2. Sam. 11.2 Holy meditation would have quenched that wild-fire of lust The word of God is pure Psalm 119.140 not onely subjective but effective T is not onely pure in it self but it makes them pure that meditate in it Christ whip't the buyers and sellers out of the temple John 2.15 Holy meditation would whip out idle and vagrant thoughts and not suffer them to lodg in the mind what is the reason the Angels in heaven have not a vain thought they have a sight of God their eye is never off him If the eye of the soul were fixed on God by meditation how would vain impure thoughts vanish As when that woman Judg. 9.52 was in the tower and Abimelek came near to the tower to have entered she threw a milstone out of the tower upon him and killed him so when we are gotten into the high tower of meditation and sinful thoughts would come near to enter we may from this tower throw a milstone upon them and destroy them And thus you have seen the benefit of meditation CHAP. XVI Setting forth the excellency of meditation ARistotle placeth Felicity in the contemplation of the mind Meditation is highly commended by Austin Chrysostome Cyprian as the nursery of piety Hierom calls it his Paradise * Dixit Hieronimus oppida urbes videri sibi tetros carceres solitudinem Paradisum Epist 72. with what words shall I set it forth other duties have done excellently but Thou excellest them all Meditation is a friend to the graces it helps to water the plantation I may call it in Basils expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil the treasury where all the graces are locked up And with Theophylact the very gate portal by which we enter into glory By meditation the Spirits are raised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and heightned to a kind of angelical frame meditation doth sweetly anticipate happiness it puts us in heaven before our time Meditation brings God and the Soul together 1 Joh. 3.2 Meditation is the Saints perspective Glass by which they see things invisible It is the golden ladder by which they ascend Paradise it is the spy they send abroad to serch the land of promise it brings a bunch of grapes with it it is the dove they send out and it brings an Olive branchof peace in its mouth but who can tell how sweet hony is save they that tast it The excellency of meditation I leave to experienced Christians who will say the comfort of it may be better felt then expressed To excite all to this Pancreston to this so useful excellent I had almost said Angelical duty let me lay down some divine motives to meditation and how glad should I be if I might revive this duty among Christians CHAP. XVII Containing divine motives to meditation Motive 1 MEditation doth discriminate and characterize a man by this he may take a measure of his heart whether it be good or bad let me allude to that Prov. 23.7 for as he thinketh in his heart so is he as the meditation is such is the man Meditation is the Touchstone of a Christian it shews what mettle he is made of It is a Spiritual Index the Index shows what is in the book so meditation shows what is in the heart If all a mans meditations are how he may get power against sin how he may grow in grace how he may have more communion with God This shows what is in his heart the frame of his heart is spiritual by the beating of this pulse judge of the health of thy soul 'T is made the character of a godly man he fears God and thinks of his Name Mal. 3.17 Whereas if the thoughts are taken up with pride and lust as are the Thoughts such is the heart Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity Isa 59.7 When vain sinfull thoughts come men make much of them they make room for them they shall diet and lodge with them if a good thought chance to come into their minde it is soon turned out of doors as an unwelcome Guest What need we further witness This argues much unsoundness of heart let this provoke to holy meditation Motive 2 The thoughts of God as they bring delight with them so they leave peace behind those are the best houres which are spent with God Conscience as the Bee gives honey it will not grieve us when we come to dye that we have spent our time in holy Soliloquies and ejaculations But what horror will the sinner have when he shall ask Conscience the question as Joram did Jehu * 2 Kings 9.22 is it peace Conscience is it peace and conscience shall say as Jehu What peace as long as the Whoredomes of thy mother Jezabel and her Witchcrafts are so many O how sad will it be with a man at such a time Christians as you tender your peace meditate in Gods Law day and night Motive 3 This duty of meditation being neglected the heart will run wilde it will not be a vineyard but a Wilderness * Neglectis urenda filix innascitur agris Meditation keeps the heart in a good decorum It plucks up the weeds of sin Plantae nobiliores sine cultu siluescunt Albertus Magnus it prunes the luxuriant branches it waters the flowers of grace it sweeps all the walks in the heart that Christ may walk there with delight For want of holy meditation the heart lies like the sluggards field Prov. 24.31 all overgrown with thorns and briars unclean earthly thoughts It is rather the divels hogsty then Christs garden T is like a house fallen to ruine fit onely for unclean spirits to inhabit Motive 4 The fruitlessness of all other meditations one man laies out his thoughts about laying up his meditations are how to raise himself in the world and when he hath arrived at an estate often God blows upon it * Hag. 1.9