caught up to meet and see the Lord Jesus their Saviour and now the glorious Judge coming to consummate their happiness in soul and body together to die no more and to meet with all the Saints and Angels come from Heaven and to be for ever with the Lord never to be from him again 5. But others that were wicked and now raised with the other black Troop that were in Hell and now have their Souls united to their bodies All shall be brought before Christ the Judge according to the opinion of some sitting on a high Throne in the Air the Saints and Angels all attending about him 9. For the manner of these proceedings alluding to the manner of mens Judicatures as Revelations Chapter 20. 1. All persons small and great are brought and stand before God that is Christ God and man 2. The Books are opened the Book of Gods Omniscience and the Books of mens hearts and consciences not in an imperfect state of ignorance and forgetfulness but fully prepared for their work of answering at the Tribunal and Bar of Christ 3. It is a judging men according to their works for that hath been done in the body good or evil Eccl. 12.16 And a judging every secret thing of mens hearts Rom. 2.16 Some conceive that seeing there will be the Revelation of the righteous judgment of God Rom. 2. therefore it will have a long time to judge the cause of every person in all particulars that so the righteousness of the judgment and sentence of Christ with the Execution of it may fully appear and none to have any least objection against it But others think there will not be so particular a discovery and tryal of all things relating to the Saints but a more general one However Christians must be diligent to be found of Christ without spot and blameless as 2 Pet. 3.14 10. When the cases of all have been tryed and made to appear the Sheep having been separate from the Goats and set at Christs right hand the Goats on the left the sentence then passes that most comfortable sentence for the Sheep the Righteous now so judged by the heart-knowing and most just Judge Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you And that terrible sentence on the Goats now openly convicted Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels To which the Saints and Angels all give their full approbation as also to the doom upon the Devils 11. Upon which the most righteous execution follows of both the sentences for the righteous and against the wicked ones To make all this obtain a more efficacious impression daily on my spirit let me strive to represent this Day as now come that I hear the Trump sound see the dead rise the living all changed in a moment looking up I see Christ coming in the Clouds with great glory Angels and Saints all attending him Christ placed on the Throne of Judgment all persons convented before him and my self among the rest my case tryed my works words thoughts and all my secrets judged and my state for all Etemity determined and now when the World is all on Fire the wicked sent into that everlasting destruction the righteous going with Christ into Heaven and everlasting happiness what my own particular condition is like to be If I can come before Christ the all-knowing Judge with confidence and exceeding joy shall be absolved and hear that joyful sentence Come thou blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for thee CHAP. XXI Of Meditation of Hell and Death Eternal therein THE very naming of Death is dreadful Death Eternal is much more dreadful but a being in Hell the worst place possible is most dreadful of all Hell though in the meer mentioning it makes such a jarr upon the spirit of any though the least touching on it by a but glancing thought the least touch be like the needles sharp point to the Apple of the Eye so acute a pain and smart yet must the Eye of the soul by Meditation not only touch it but take it close to it but dwell upon it Death natural in the but very thought hath a very high attending regret we cannot endure to look deathward but O how greatly unwilling to look in the least this sad way destruction-ward Hell-ward toward death Eternal The first is tasting Gall but the second is a drinking Poyson The one hath a deep attending reluctancy the other a double died antipathy It 's the harshest task for a sinner it 's a hard for a Saint to fix willingly and dwell in Meditation on so sad and dreadful a subject as Hell is yet is it that which must be done and by a holy wise spirit may be both confidently and advantageously done The best Christian on earth will lose nothing by sometimes looking into Hell and fixing the thoughts there No man ever yet fled from Hell but first fixt his thoughts in some proportion on it No man will flye fast enough from this Pit of perdition this Lake of Fire if he do not oft look towards it and keep his Eye upon it Hell and Death Eternal are set down in Scripture for both evil and good mens flying but this cannot be compast without frequencies of earnest ponderings and meditatings For a right proceeding in this Meditation 1. Let me first look to that which is my infallible rule the testimony of that God who founded Hell and laid the corner stone of it who first threatned and prepared this Prison this Pit of destruction who knows all the large dimensions of it all things in and about it and cannot nor will not in the least deceive us in it He hath given us his Word to tell us and that under his own hand in great numbers and varieties of passages that we cannot rationally conceive he would so do mention and give it so many times under his own hand were there no such thing no local Hell and second Death Eternal My way therefore as a good Christian is to look up gather Scripture passages passage after passage all over the Book of God as I find this asserted in them O shall my lives time ravel out without any redeeming it as to this particular of giving due down weight of thoughts frequent serious thoughts as opportunity can be had of Death Eternal in Hell I must not only say there is a Hell I must not only give it for granted as most persons do but I must be concluded under the Scripture Authority See it and say it upon due perswasion upon clear demonstration demonstration on conclusive argumentation Arguments chosen as so many Arrows taken out of Christs Quiver the Scriptures levell'd right flying round up to the mark and hitting full my unbelieving and recoiling averse spirit making it fall down under this weighty truth reducing it through Christs help to a firm and operative belief yea so to assent to and ponder this so high
Eccl. 12. Imagine then that great and terrible day of the Lord to be come thou seest the Heavens departing as a scrowl the Elements melting with fervent heat the Earth with the works therein burnt up imagine thou seest the Lord Jesus descending from Heaven with his mighty Angels coming with the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God seest the dead arising the living all changed in a moment and all persons whatsoever convented and brought before Jesus Christ the Judge such a Judge as never any was in any degree to be compared with so unspeakably excellent and glorious sitting on his high Throne in highest and most transcendent majesty and glory as there cannot possibly be greater Among all that are to be judged imagine thy self there appearing at the Judgment seat to make thy personal answer and take thy Eternal doom that presently thou art call'd come thou sinner come hold up thy hand at the Bar answer for thy self that thou hearest the Judge call read the indictment read it aloud and answer thou sinner to every part of thy charge 1. First thou that standest here at this Bar to be tryed thou hast a noble faculty of reason and understanding and with it a power of thinking and meditating given into thy soul and that above all others to meditate of heavenly things thou answerest it is true Lord I cannot deny it 2. Thou also hadst my Word a perfect rule to direct thee my Ministers to perswade thee my Spirit to draw thee thine own conscience to call upon thee which also called loud often and earnestly upon thee to consider yes Lord thou answerest it is most true 3. Time also and opportunity thou hadst space sufficient allowed thee to meditate and consider if thou wouldst have done it a time of youth and time enough then also a time of it may be riper years and old age a time of many years great patience waitings on and strivings with True Lord thou answerest I had many opportunities to consider 4. But when thou should have remembred thy Creator in the days of thy youth thou didst forget him wouldst not think of him of his Word of his ways thy own state and thy souls concerns Thy first fresh years were spent in walking in the sight of thy eyes and minding vanities thou couldst find time enough to think of thy pleasures thy play sports and pastimes thy excesses filthiness loosness but not of thy God or thy souls great affairs At such a place in such a year such a month such a day of that month such an hour or suchhours of that day is it not so sinner there then thou wert thinking musing devising for such a pleasure such a sport such a vanity and such a wickedness and the following day at such a place and such an hour doing the like and so day after day thy thoughts were lavisht lost let out on impertinencies and meer vanities but purposely taken and turn'd from all religious seriousness all soul-matters Was not this thy usual way to ravel out that thy youths time in never minding thy God and the things are holy never to consider any thing to any purpose indeed What say'st thou sinner to all this charge of embezling that precious time of tender and more pliable youth Are not all particulars charged against thee true Yes Lord Jesus I was such a one as to every particular and cannot deny any thing charged 5. Ah but beyond that time thou livedst up to riper years and when the time of fond phansie and folly wore off by the ripening of reason on thy coming to mans estate then had you more reason far more to mind and meditate on the great concernments of God and your soul I then lookt for seriousness when you now could be serious and serious enough in things of lower concernment as for your calling and business for getting wealth and growing rich to be great and high and have abundance ah how couldst thou studdy muse beat thy Brains in the day and in the night appointed for rest and sleep how did thy worldly mindedness act thee thy mind running thoughts intending multiplying with all possible earnestness and eagerness Ah friend what have been the multitudes of thy musings day after day in such and such cases business bargains purchases and projects What an engrosser of thoughts hath Mammon been in thy covetous frame of heart and what a most shameful excluder of good and heavenly thoughts continually Yea I have to charge thee farther before men and Angels with thy studyings and contrivances the deepest and most intense thoughts of heart thou hast had for credit applause and honour from men like thy self for rising growing high getting power and being great in the world O how this this friend provokt and engag'd your thoughts studyings plottings all the soul-earnestness that was in thee to be accounted and applauded to be great and high but you never would be half so serious spend any such proportion of time to get Honour that comes from God and to be one the Lord commends Sinner is not all this also true canst thou deny any one part of this charge No Lord saith the Prisoner it is all very true Over and above thou hast meditated and devised and that many and divers ways for satisfying thy lusts in every way thou likedst and wert pleased in Meditated for mischief taking revenge which was none of thine but mine as now appears yea for opposing good causes persecuting the godly such as would be upright in their Generation and not be wrapt up in the wickedness of the times Ah what of all others what depths and heights of musings and devisings hath thy heart of hatred thy keenest hellish malice brooded and brought forth against my Saints these Saints that lived with thee here they are before thee see them there 's such a godly painful Minister and there 's another and there are all the rest you hated and opposed here friend are such Christians you have plotted against and persecuted so often there 's such that lived in such places about you there 's such who lived in the same Town with you here 's one that lived the very next door to you here be those who were in the same Family of your familiarity of your daily converse with and your spiteful opposition to here 's such a fellow-servant such a Brother or Sister such a Child or Parent such a Husband or Wife hated and scorned for godliness sake This this hath been thy manner sinner from thy very first to the end of thy days which have not been few all the thoughts of thy heart evil all but steps in the long walk of the vanity of thy mind Thoughts thou hast enough thy mind that meditated enough was ever acting busie enough but bad thou wouldst not meditate the right way on the best things on holy and spiritual things not in all thy time so as to convert and turn to God What
glowing heat and liveliness for all the following day is still fit in some measure to be practised 2. The next should be some serious musing on that next End our own salvation and Eternal bappiness farther to be wrought out to be our day labour by the opportunity of a new begun day a day which will bring us nearer to the Ocean of Eternity CHAP. IV. Of the next End Salvation NExt to the highest Gods interest must be mused seriously upon this great soul-interest Prov. 9.12 If thou art wise thou art wise for thy self 2 Tim. 3.1 Wisdom to salvation This because self is so near and dear and the immortal Soul so unspeakably precious the heart being once stampt with a spiritual high strong self-love will have a mighty influence of warmth abiding on the Spirit Here two things are to be attended and practised 1. Meditation of Salvation in a more general Notion and Consideration works little or nothing but the pondering of particulars in Salvation It is a Rule in Oratory and so in Preaching that for moving and drawing the affections generals and things in a confused manner spoken they hit not work not draw not It is the distinct seeing and viewing of particulars which moves and affects to purpose So Meditation to be effectual must particularize the things comprised in some sort in this happiness and salvation As that so blessed freedom from sin in the guilt in pardon and righteousness from the dominion of sin by power life image of Christ and holiness and the glorious priviledges of a Christian here and Everlasting Glory hereafter and such like 2. There 's another Rule among Oratours that things moving the Affections they do it either Magnitudine aut Praesentia by their greatness or excellency or by their presence or nearness As the greatness of a person or the presence of a person or the greatness of a good or evil or the nearness and presence of it 1. The greatness the surpassing greatness of Salvation as Scripture sets it forth Heb. 2. That so unspeakable deliverance from such a height breadth and length of Misery by sin and that inexpressible happiness by union with Jesus Christ The so great things of this glorious state should fall by our Meditation upon the Affections and daily like fire from Heaven kindle them greatly 2. Things move by their presence or nearness the remoter the Object is from the Faculty as the Objects of the External Senses as Seeing Hearing and the rest or the farther a thing is apprehended to be as any Place or Time or the like the less it affects But the presence or propinquity of a thing moves most as when a Poyson or dangerous thing is near or present as an Antidote or a help when near when Death or Deliverance is at hand when a Friend is present or the like this moves most So the way of Meditation here is by representing salvation as present or near 2 Cor. 6. 1 2 3. escaping Hell as now being put into possession of Heaven as now if I were now dying and my Soul sitting on my lips ready to take its flight as now if now the last Trump were sounding now Jesus Christ seen coming to Judgment now the Sentence of Absolution passing Let me thus season and strengthen Meditation by this kind of representation seeing it as near as present now acting now doing or now having and fully possessing this Salvation CHAP. V. Of the Means conducing to this chief End THE next thing in spiritual wisdom to be the Object of daily Meditation is to give as we can some allowance of serious thoughts of that which should be the due and adequate means conducing to the chief End of Eternal life with the glorifying of God as formerly we have mentioned 1. Christ the way Therefore the next thing being the highest and uppermost of all conducing Means to the Supream End the next thing I say to be the great Object of Meditation must be Jesus Christ our way to the Father and our highest way of glorifying him None comes to the Father saith Christ but by me John Initial coming to God by Faith to Justification Reconciliation and Union with God is by Christ All other after comings and glorifyings of God are still by Christ as also all salvation is treasured up in him so it must be the best way for our Meditations method to be daily acted in some measure upon our mighty Saviour our great and only way to our great and chief End so he calls himself the way John Here what a most glorious and delicious Object hath the Eye of Meditation Christ in Isa 65.1 calls Behold me behold me ah what a Spirit must that be that for such an infinite Beauty cannot afford one cast of the eye one wishly look in the whole compass of a day that can look every way freely fixedly and unweariedly but Christward The Spouse in the Canticles her Eye-walk was among the Excellencies and Beauties of her Beloved the Lord Christ his pure Colours White and Red his most rare features and exact proportions of every part his Head Locks Eyes Cheeks Lips Hands Legs and all his glorious perfections and then addes to fum up all that he is altogether lovely So lovely that her Eye affected her heart and so beloved that she fell sick of love Ah when a heart is strongly enflamed with a Love to Christ the eye will be acted in most wishly lookings upon Christ as the love grows the earnest lookings will grow Here then the Rule is to Meditate in some due measure on this Glorious Object so both infinitely excellent in himself and so mighty a Saviour unto us His infinite Riches and Preciousness in his Natures united in his Offices conferred in his graces fullness perfect performances most perfect Redemption his infinite love pity willingness to save lost Sinners The so great free offers of himself and giving himself to us applying his whole Redemption to us by his mighty operation in us Some singular seriousness and rigour of Meditation cannot but daily be due as that first and chief means to the chief End Christians that least look at Christ and least distinctly view him will make the slowest progress and such as study him most will have the easiest and most expedite coming up to the main Mark. CHAP. VI. Meditation of the Holy Spirit the Applier of Christ and his Redemption 2. SOme due proportion of Thoughts-seriousness is proper to be daily acted in reference to the mighty and only applyer of the work of Christs Redemption the holy Spirit and our great daily helper The Holy Spirit first comes to the Soul and person of a Christian applies Christ to him brings Christ into him makes him his Temple and an Habitation of God and Christ to dwell in the heart The Spirit comes inhabits sweeps and cleanses furnishes the heart with light that was darkness with truth that was errour and deceitfulness with power that was weakness life-warmth
Sugar drops unspeakable sweetness and satisfaction upon and into the holy heart 1 Pet. 1.8 These and sundry others are the fat things full of marrow and make up the Feast and are from the actings and industries of this happy way of Meditation As therefore the Heart is hungry and thirsty in continual Lingrings and Longings and never quiet Meditation must carry it to this royal Gospel Feast and thereby meet with a blessed fatisfaction not being contented with the sight of the Feast and the delicacies of it without attaining some happy satiety The Prophet Isaiah mentions one dreaming of eating but when he awakes his soul is hungry If we look not well to it Meditation may be but such an unprofitable thinking as when we have ended it we may miss of this satisfaction find our souls empty It must be still so managed that it prove a help and cure to my Soul 's inordinate lingerings and improve to a spiritual satisfaction Plutarch in his Morals tells of one Pythos who finding a rich Mine of Gold and out of his eager desire to have the Treasure in the Mine was so continually attending at the Mine that he neglected his comings home to his Meals To confute his covetous industry his Wife one day instead of providing him food prepared nothing but Golden Dishes with several sorts of Meats cast into the forms of sundry things edible but all of Gold whereby he could observe a curiosity of invention but was disappointed of feeding and satiety We must not in our Meditation content our selves with feeding the eye for curiosity but endeavour feeding the Soul unto satiety heavenly satiety Ah let my Spirit mind more a fullness of satisfaction than newness of Notion carry it from Head-work to Heart-work from bare speculation to rare and ravishing satisfaction This for the third particular Soul satiety 4. Admiration Let me to set the Crown on the head of the Duty adde one thing over and above let Meditation be carried up to admiration not only should we be affected but transported rapt up and ravisht with the beauties and transcendencies of heavenly things act Meditation to Admiration endeavour the highest pitch coming the nearest to the highest patterns the patterns of Saints and Angels in Heaven whose actings are the purest highest Extasies and Admirations Thus were these so excellent Artists in Meditation David an high acter of Admiration in Meditation as often we see it in the Psalms so in Ps 8.1 and the last Verse Ps 31.19 O how great is thy goodness c. Psal 104.24 O Lord how manifold are thy works c. And in other places Davids Meditation and Admiration were as his Harp well tuned and excellently played on in rarest airs and highest strains as the precious Gold and the curious burnishing or the richest Stone and the exquisitest polishing and setting of it So blessed Paul who was a great Artist in musing acted high in admiration his soul was very warm and flaming up in it It was as a Bird with a strong and long wing that soars and towers up aloft and gets out of sight Thus sundry of the Ancients as holy Austin Bernard and others of those who have recorded their rare hours of Meditations and Transportings of Admiration liftings out of themselves and liftings up to Heaven A precious Minister of Christ oft in his life time would wish he might die in the heavenly Exercise of singing a Psalm in which he used to be transported in Meditation and Admiration At length he had in singing a Psalm his holy wish dying in the performance whereby he was rapt up after his ravishment in the Duty into Heaven changing his place but not his work Another a man eminently learned and heavenly riding with a friend in his Coach he fell into a rare Contemplation and Discourse of the glory of Heaven and the beatifical vision in which he was so highly ravisht that within a short time he was suddenly taken from this Earth to take his possession of that Glory he had so before in Contemplation Thus I have weakly endeavoured some explication of this happy work of holy Meditation It must first be begun with fervent Prayer It must be founded in a purpose of 1. A right work 2. A wise work 3. A warm work 4. A strong purpose of earnest striving against all impediments 5. An endeavour of the kindly issue and success It must have likewise 1. Putting on a holy Reverence and Awe 2. A Retreat of thoughts from all other Objects than such as we are to muse on 3. A strong Guard must be set to keep off all diversions 4. A setting on the thoughts on the Object 5. A seriousness of thoughts 6. A searching of thoughts 7. And then a staying and dwelling of thoughts 8. An intermixing of heavenly affections 1. Desire 2. Love 3. Joy And Meditation should have 1. A savouriness 2. A sweetness 3. A satiety 4. Come up and be carried on with holy admiration There remains one thing more to be spoken of in the Description given of Meditation CHAP. XVIII Of the Ends of Meditation MEditation we described to be an institution of Christ and duty of a Christian wherein the Mind acts upon spiritual things or other things in a spiritual manner by a due considering of them and this to holy ends or spiritual uses only Now the Ends of Meditation are three Three great Ends of our Meditating 1. Such as refer to the most high God 2. Such as respect our selves 3. Such as relate to others 1. Such as refer to the most high God Meditation is to be the motion of the heavenly spirit Heavenward to carry it up to Heaven and keep it a time there A looking of the Eye of the mind and a lifting up of the heart a making a stay and taking a spiritual solace in Heaven with God All Duties we perform must be done to the living God Heb. 9.14 to serve the living God If otherwise our Duties are but dead works loathsome as dead Carkasses A living work must have for its supreme end the living God God that is the first and best must have the first aim and levelling to They say in Philosophy the last end must have the first intending The first looking at as the first ground and mover to any work And as they say in Opticks the peculiar Art that treats about the nature of seeing of Objects Quod primo radiat est primo visibile that which first irradiates sends forth that which through the Medium first conveys it self to the Eye This is first visible and that is light The first thing the Eye of Meditation should fix upon is that which is the light of lights and that is God who is all Light Beauty and Glory Meditation should be chiefly acted to see God and to aim at glorifying of God above all 1 Cor. 10.31 Whatsoever ye do do all to the glory of God The Gentiles wise men and great Philosophers because their
speculations were not acted to the glory of God were vain imaginations Rom. 1. Whatsoever the aim be if the glory of God be not the real scope nay if it be not the master mark the work is miscarried and but a ravelling out of Time a losing of Labour Meditation must make sure of the right method and order of aiming the glory of God like the Sun in the Heavens that out-shines all other Lights below and above and that which is to be seen before and above all others so this must be eyed and aimed at likewise far before all other Three things to be eyed Ah we should eye 1. The Infinite Glories and Resplendencies of the Eternal and All-sufficient God 2. The infinite distances and heights he is in above us 3. And the infinite Obligations that ever lie upon us to exalt him beyond all As in the making of our whole man whereby he is total owner of us and proprietor in us And in our preserving whereby we are yet more highly bound And in the provisions for our Eternal happiness which is far beyond all the former Therefore there 's an absolute necessity of this Method and Order of still first aiming every Duty and Acting at this grand mark and then to make it the striving and pressing hard of our Spirits to it O that in my thinkings in the ascendings of my thoughts this glory of the great God may ever still ascend For no thoughts nor actings can truly ascend if they go not up to the blessed God and this glory of God if God goes not up higher in our thinkings they then go not higher than self and which is but indeed downward and not upward at all Nay 't is a worse descent than that also 't is Destruction and Hell-ward whatsoever is Self-ward and is not to the advanceing of the great God Meditation is not only to be acted to God as a Duty but as this Duty in its peculiarity and propriety as being a peculiar streight line to God as a singular way for our taking aim this high aim at exalting the praises of God Thus did that rare mark-man holy David as it is admirably conspicuous in the Psalms in Psal 103.12 In the very entrance he lays a strict a repeated command upon his Soul and all that is within him to bless and bless and praise God Yea not only lays his Meditation level to the mark but raises up his spirit to take the purest the fullest aim this both by a selecting and improving of spiritual reasons the strongest he could find and the most quickning Motives he could apply all that his heart might carry up in a heavenly flame the highest praises of God Thus you shall see him very frequently acting his Meditation up with the greatest fervour to this exalting highly of God Meditation is a peculiar visit made to the great God a Mind a Thought visit wherein as to a great friend the Soul as it were comes and saith to God Lord I come to see thee I now come purposely to see thee to spend some fit portion of time with thee and I come for that high Honour and Observance I am infinitely obliged to tender to thee Every Meditation is giving a fresh visit and thereby a new tender of highest Honour we own to this best of Friends This is the first end 2. The next end is our highly pleasing of God which by Meditation we are to intend God will be both obeyed and pleased with our respecting and acting of every appointed way Meditation is the best way the most pleasing way of thinking Col. 1.11 We are to walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing Therefore this must be performed to an intended pleasing a due serious thinking a pondering and dwelling of the thoughts upon heavenly things and chiefly upon the infinite Beauties and Excellencies of God who is the perfect Thought and Heart-knower the exquisite Searcher and Observer of Soul-actings But then most when purposely pleasing is designed This must very highly please him when we especially design pleasing with our most wishly eyings of him yea to intend the doing our best to please him and this O how should it greatly also please us David Psal 19. last v. prays for pleasing God Let the Meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight O Lord my strength and my Redeemer So it is not only to be prayed for but made the holy aim of Meditation with our utmost care Favourites to great Princes what industries do they use to please them especially that their thoughts offered in Counsels may be acceptable Thus how did Philotas who was Alexander the Great 's Favourite and Meeenas Augustus his Favourite and so among our selves divers But how near goes it to them if their Counsels please not as with Achitophel when his Counsel pleased not Absalom and on the contrary with Hushai when his Counsel pleased So when Hamans Counsel was rejected and how contrary with Mordecai when his Counsels were resented Pleasing of a Prince is a great encouragement But pleasing of a God is a sweet Soul Contentment it is most worthy striving after O how unspeakably sweet will the finding and feeling of this prove in thy heart when Meditation is performed purposely to please thy God when it runs in a pure stream when thy spirit reflecting on its actings in Meditating makes discovery of this holy aim of high pleasing the most high God As the Scripture commands pleasing the Saints are peculiarly commended and greatly honoured for it As with wise and well bred people obliging and pleasing in good things great pleasing is a great praise As Abel Enoch and others from this character of pleasing God It is a heavenly ambition to earnestly design pleasing as in all others so in this walking with God in Meditation CHAP. XIX Meditation respecting our selves 2. AS there should be such aims relating to the great God so Meditation must have its advantageous aims respecting our selves 1. The Grand Scope and End of our own happiness 2. All other Subservient and Excellent Ends. 1. The grand End of our own happiness and working out our own salvation is the next spiritual end that Meditation as a mighty Engine should set on going to effect It should be sure to be ordered up and duly aimed at acted according to the aptitude and fitness of any way in it to further this important end Musing and right Meditation hath a most rare tendency and helpfullness as to the working out salvation As it is a sanctified means on Gods part so it must be an earnestly employed help on our part We must Meditate ever so that it may help on salvation we must mean it and level it sure not any way deceive our selves but take the best and surest aim Salvation challenges the best eying the fullest steadiest strongest aiming of every way and help Soul happiness must not have slender aims we cannot have aimings too serious and intense Let my aimings
is to frequently in my thoughts put my self into the condition of a present dying How it must be with me let me look on my self how certainly without flattery I am prepared to dye If I have a Christ in my bosom the Love of God assured and can dye in the Lord 2 Cor. 13.5 dye in Faith and look Death in the face boldly resign up my soul freely into Christs hands these make for this Agony the highest Cordial these furnish me with Armour of proof against this Enemy But let me then look on my self as having no means farther to preserve me all Physick Art and Experiences withdrawing their usual help Friends standing about me pitying lamenting me but not able to evidence more than their kind wishes and I my self perceiving Deaths summons sent me as to King Hezekiah but without expecting any Messenger after to be sent with better News Prayers now and all such means also reversed and proving labours lost I now feeling my decays and hastening away my disquiets and pains encreasing strength failing spirits sinking heat turned into chillness Cramps contractions of Nerves and limbs following breath shortening speech faultring heart pangs and agonies now multiplying the whole frame of the body shaking the Hands snatching Eye-strings as they say breaking and after many deep heavy sighings and groanings the Soul comes forth with gaspings and sitting upon my quivering lips upon the last gasp takes its nimble flight leaves its old habitation to rottenness and corruption and launches forth into an everlasting new condition Lord teach me so to number my days see how frail I am Psal 90.12 Psal 39.1 let me so often realize this dying to my self in most serious Meditation put my self into this condition of Deaths coming and acting his part his utmost on me that I may both familiarize and facilitate this so dreadful and difficult work that I may be greatly desirous to be dissolved and be thereby with Christ which is best of all O that I may perform this last work best which that I may and make that great Enemy my great Friend my Losses greatest Gain let me still mind Christ's healing this bitter water making it sweet making this Deaths-day better than the Births-day let my thoughts be on the Sting's pulling out that it cannot hurt if I am Christ's Death is ours if we are Christ's and for our most high advantages as being the great outlet of all evil and misery I now shall sin no more be tempted and ensnared no more the World shall now be corruptions bait and Satans Hook no more Satan shall never throw at me any fiery dart more God will never desert me hide his face from me more All Miseries Crosses Losses Poverty Shame Pain Sickness Weakness Weariness Faintness Hunger Thirst Cold Nakedness Labour Toil Cares Fears Sorrows and Disquiets and whatsoever of this lifes Evils can be named is at an Eternal end And Death becomes the great inlet of all good to flow in most abundantly a passage to Heaven to be possest of a Crown of Glory to enjoy the innumerable company of Saints and Angels to be with Christ and seeing God face to face and fulness of felicity for evermore CHAP. XIX Of Judgment after death ON the sad parting of those two dearest friends Soul and Body comes instantly the doom and sentence Heb. 9.27 the particular Judgment of the person to pass and be put in execution to an Eternal Estate either of Happiness or Misery immediately as to the immortal Soul and afterward at the General Resurrection of Body and Soul in Conjunction This therefore little foregoing Day of Judgment upon which by the Bodies mortality and necessity of dying and the Souls immortality and necessity of not dying every person comes to be stated in eternal misery or happiness unavoidably is a point of most high consequence to be well considered deeply weighed often dwelt upon in our most prudent improvements of retiredness A very great frequency and repetition of our best thoughts and serious ponderings must be the Tribute of this concern this vertical point this Judgment which casts the scales and makes full weight for misery or felicity for ever For as the tree falls so it lies as Death leaves Judgment this particular Judgment finds us dooms us irreversibly there is no bringing a Writ of Errour no Appeal to be made no pardon now the Judge will give no petition he will receive no stay of proceedings can in the least be granted or lookt for on any ground This to every particulat person in some respect is his great day of Judgment this disposes and dispatches this secures and keeps me for the great general Assize and Judgment this is the Foundation that will be the Superstructure this is secret that is solemn this for a private execution that for one in open view of all But this Judgment particular strikes the first stroke of utter undoing or lends the first hand of help to an eternal saving and without which the great Judgment doth not proceed Ah then well may I afford this Judgment a great frequency largeness seriousness of thoughts which launches the Ship of my Soul into the Ocean of Eternity which lets my Soul either presently to sink into the Bottomless Pit purposely sends it thither casts it into the Lake of Everlasting Fire or sends it into Abrahams bosom into the harbour of eternal happiness and enters this Jewel into the Cabinet of Heaven Ah how unspeakably considerable is this particular Judgment The very moment of my death that is uncertain and the very next moment after death comes certain Judgment irresistably and irrecoverably and determines our state of Eternity CHAP. XX. Of the general Judgment Day BUT then particular Judgment foregoing this is but the foundation and introduction of the following The private and partial execution on the Soul separate from the Body shall have a publick and most solemn both manifestation and consummation with it 1. This day among other ends is reserved for the so great and glorious manifestation of the infinite holiness and righteousness grace and mercy wrath and severity and other Attributes of God never in this world having their so full discovery as now by the intendment and most wise contrivance of a God they shall have before Angels and Saints Devils and wicked men The Judgment-day Rom. 2.5 is called the day of the Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God of that righteousness that so great and glorious Attribute so little understood less considered so much questioned and cavil'd at the highest declaration and fullest Revelation that ever was shall be then made and seen by all So the rest of Gods Attributes shall obtain their meridian height and shine forth in their most perfect resplendencies Therefore it needs must be a very great day when it is so intended purposely to be the greatest day that ever was or can be 2. It is also purposely constituted for the highest glory of Jesus
of meer general thinkings or that of Phansie or Speculation of our own but first laying a Scripture great and firm foundation And then after to improve those Scripture assertions by all the ability and help we can of Reason and Inferences of best Representations and Resemblances of Imagination and Invention General apprehensions and grantings of Scripture truths deceive and destroy many when they are rested in General notions of Heaven and happiness granting it there is a Heaven and no more makes many miss of it miss for want of more distinct apprehensions well grounded believing and due deep sinking of it to the bottom of the heart there to lie glowing to warm and kindle the affections to provoke into a labouring a mighty striving to win the Crown of glory The way is as wisdom in all other cases of consequence teaches to come off every day from general confused thoughts of Heaven and happiness restings on and runnings away with a supposed doing enough If we still grant there 's a Heaven and Happiness every day to endeavour distincter and clearer thoughts and knowledge Generals will not serve grantings must not be made the enough of a wise Christian he must have an extensive and enlarging clearness an encreasing firmness of Faith in the Doctrines the great points of salvation But we having this so prime an Article of faith that which hath wrapt up in it so rich a Treasure and preserves as it were that so inestimable Jewel of happiness mans last end that which is the great foundation and instigation of all a Christians strivings and hopes for he hath no hope in this life for happiness here This therefore should not be turned off nor terminated as too oft is done with a granting or bare assent but still obtain of us a fuller firmer warmer and more operative seeing and belief Now this cannot be without diligent gathering in and better still Meditating on particular Scriptures asserting and clearly manifesting this main Article and mans chief end comprised in it The Jewish Church had this typified in the Holy of Holies as Heb. 9.3.12.24 Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which were the Figures of the true but into Heaven it self This was that by the visible place faith might be stirr'd up to eye and view the invisible typified state of glory Psal 73.24 David tells us of it and was assured to be received up into glory that is into Heaven in glory Dan. 12.23 Of them that sleep in the dust some shall awake to everlasting life and shine as the brightness of the firmament and some as the stars for ever The Church of the New Testament in the writings given by Christ to it have this Doctrine of Heaven and happiness abundantly and most clearly set forth The first mentionings of it are out of the mouth of him that with the Father and Holy Spirit made it Math. 5.3 in Christs first Sermon Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven So verse 10 12. The persecuted for righteousness theirs is c. verse 20. Mention there is again of it Verse 34. and v. 45. and 48. Chap. 6. v. 1. v. 9. The first passage in the Lord's Prayer At least twelve several times in this first Sermon of Christ this Heaven is mentioned And as in the Gospels so all the new Testament over you may many scores of times find and see it lying as a most shining and glorious Diamond in the Mine or as in a rich Cabinet for to be viewed and laboured for The multitudes of places well weighed must needs hold forth to all that shut not their eyes wilfully a Local Heaven a place of happiness and glory It is no Allegorical Heaven as some have dream'd or may ignorantly imagine when it is asserted in so many clear passages which all of them in our reading or hearings should have their due weight weight of thinkings and efficacy on us for firm believing and answerable endeavours for not losing but enjoying it For the rank of places what it hath the Scripture tells us it is the third Heaven the first being that where the Clouds are the second where the glorious Lights Sun Moon and Stars are this third above them all call'd therefore the highest Heaven This third and highest Heaven is most inconceivably excellent not made of any preceeding matter much less of any elementary matter Some say it was made immediately of nothing and with it were also made concreated the Angels all at the same instant Heaven never being empty of Inhabitants The Sun Moon and Stars were made not the first day but the fourth day for Furniture of that Heaven under the highest Heaven 2. It is the largest and most capacious place as that which comprises or surrounds all the inferiour world and things in that O here here is Rechaboth room enough In this world here 's crowding pushing crushing of the Saints The wicked world would quite cast them every one out of it to be left alone and enjoy all to be let alone and have none to see and shame them any way But the Saints shall all be brought at last into a large place where none shall molest or trouble them Heaven is a Rechaboth indeed a most large place The Globe of the whole Earth and Water is as Geographers tell us at the least one and twenty thousand and six hundred miles in compass The Air above encompassing in that and especially the uppermost part of the Air must needs be far more in compass than the Earth and Water The Moon alone is very great though something less than the Earth some of the Planets are judged far greater than the Globe of the Earth The Sun by some is judged to be one hundred sixty six times greater than the whole Earths Globe which others make yet far greater which then must be some millions of miles in compass according to that account The fixed Stars which all are above the highest Planet Saturn are by the Learned every of them judged greater than all the Earth the least of them eighteen times bigger than the Earth those of the highest magnitude and the most glorious brightness an hundred and eighteen times bigger than the whole Earth Of these fixed Stars who can tell the numbers of them those which are reckon'd are but some hundreds in their Constellations How exceeding then vast must this starry Heaven be if the Planets and fixed Stars in it are so great and numerous O then how unspeakably vast and large must this third Heaven be which compasses round all the Earth Air and the starry Heavens What a Kingdom for Territories is this What a place for Christ to prepare Mansions for his in What a place for the all-glorious God and Jesus Christ to keep a Court in highest splendour and magnificence in And the Lord Jesus the Saviour that purchased this inheritance with his own blood for him to be ever viewed loved admired
glorified by all his Saints to the highest in Of all imaginable places this this is the place this is Room this is a place so large as the hearts of the Saints can wish 3. As Heaven is the largest for capacity and quantity so is it the best place for quality and excellency 2 Cor. 12. It is called Paradise by that blessed Paul who was taken up thither to tell upon his return what a place it was Paradise mentioned Gen. 2.8 it was the best place that ever was on Earth it was the summary of all necessaries and delicacies for Adam in that perfect state his accommodations recreations and abundant delight fit therefore to resemble the place of glory by And so our Lord Christ thought when he calls it by this name of Paradise Luke 23.43 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise The best place it was made because for the best Creature on Earth Luke 16. It is called Abraham's bosom Abraham in his time was the most eminent person living call'd the Father of the faithful No place for a Child can be so proper so desirable pleasing and contenting as the most loving tender Fathers Bosom O how a Child loves the Bosom O how desirous are the Children of Abraham to be in his Bosom In other places it is a place of glory riches of glory a Kingdom a Crown of glory an eternal weight of glory a state where there are Pleasures for evermore Rivers of pleasures joys and fullness of joy For every Saint the highest entertainments in all respects for the Senses 1. The Ear hath such ravishing Musick and melody as that best and greatest Consort of all the innumerable companies of Saints and Angels can make 2. For the Eye the Palace of Heaven is unspeakably beyond all places prospects and objects that Nature and Art could ever yield The persons of the Saints as to the numbers so innumerable must needs make up the rarest Train and shew as to their sorts and differences that ever Eye saw O what a ravishing sight must that be to see Enoch Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob and all the Holy Patriarchs Moses Samuel David and all the Holy Prophets Peter Paul John and all the Holy Apostles All the blessed and glorious Martyrs of Jesus Christ All his godly and serviceable painful and laborious Ministers All the precious Saints Kings and Governours and others that are recorded in the Bible And not only Men but holy Women Sarah Hannah Ruth Esther and others in the Old Testament the blessed Virgin and Elizabeth with the Women that followed Christ and ministred unto him Mary Magdalen Johanna Susanna Lydia Dorcas Priscilla among the Apostles helping them all the Disciples of Christ which believed in him with all the eminent godly lights in the Church after the Apostles and all the Saints in all after Ages to the worlds end And then for all this Train in their sorts and ranks as to their bodies to be so all over glorious to shine as the Sun and brightness of the Firmament for ever O what a shew and ravishing entertainment is here for the Eye But that which is the top and height and far surpassing all the other is that sweetest most ravishing sight of the most glorious body of Jesus Christ The highest beauty that ever Eye beheld or saw far out-shining all others as the Sun exceeds the Stars Ah here here will be a sight indeed Ah but then to behold him in his highest discoveries of his sweetest loveliest lookings and smilings on all his Saints with him and upon thee in particular To see his countenance compos'd and ordered purposely to beam forth in fullest Manifestations of surpassing sweetness of most intense affections towards his so dearly beloved Bride now present with him in the glorious Bed-Chamber to behold him and enjoy perfect communion with him 3. O but what entertainments are there as to the soul and spirit for the faculties of Vnderstanding Will and Affections how far transcending those of the Senses as the beatifical vision seeing God face to face with all intellectual satisfaction as to all the truths in the Word of God all Mysteries Prophecies and difficulties and whatsoever may conduce to the glorious happiness of the Saints satisfaction also as to the works and ways of God Creation and Providence all the Riddles and dark things so far made known as is needful Likewise as to the will and heart the beatifical fruition enjoying of God Father Son and Spirit and his infinite sweetness to all possible fullness and perfection Likewise all happy communion with Saints and Angels to all delight and pleasure And for all this both body and Soul are prepared strengthened elevated and enlarged to the utmost extensiveness As all imperfections and sins are utterly remov'd so all grace and holiness light and wisdom heat and flame of heart communicated and in a blessed reciprocation a mutual acting God the infinitely alsufficient communicating himself to the glorified to their utmost capacity and they reacting and putting forth their grace and holiness to their utmost ability O how unspeakably sweet and satiating must this continual intercourse be For the close of all let me think my self after a glorious and blessed Resurrection and absolution by Christ at the Judgment day freed utterly from all evil feeling likewise my compleat happiness coming on so fast in my now passage up to the place of glory and then instantly finding it finisht finisht on the first setting my foot as it were within the Gate of Heaven And now I think what a prepared and furnished place I am in What company of the Saints Angels and Jesus Christ also I have What fruition of the most blessed God what sense of the pleasures joys satisfactions and most ravishing sweetness under all security under that which superadded heightens and sweetens all the rest the Charter of inconceivable eternity Ah then let my frequent and intensest thinkings be not a looking down to Earth but up to Heaven breathing my soul up the Hill to this City of God in contemplating the Glories of it often let me walk this so pleasant walk Who will look and pore on a dark Dungeon that hath the Sun to behold who will that means to hit the mark look quite besides it who is it can go to Heaven that thinks most another way that hath a down-look as we say a Beasts Eye that hath no Muscle of elevation Ah such as look most will long most after labour most for it O therefore let my Eye every day be walking to and in this Paradise solace it self in taking a turn still there be walking in this upper Eye-walk by Meditation till I come to see God face to face till I look my self into this Heaven I look on I have now dispatcht this point of Occasional set Meditation as to the first branch Meditation of such things we our selves single out and set before us and take some special times for which were in these
make much use of this short way of Meditation when he often could not go the other larger way As he was frequent in his sudden short prayings so must he be much in short sudden meditatings which were the ground commonly of his prayings The Psalms shew his frequent using this short way of meditation and praying Thus Psal 15. a Psalm of but five verses So Psal 127. a Psalm of five verses and Psal 125. the like and Psal 123. hath a Meditation of four verses Psal 131. is a Meditation of three verses and Psal 117. is a Meditation of but two verses yet the spirit of God is pleas'd to have it recorded Many other Psalms we have very short that were his quick Meditations left all for teaching us to do likewise looking on his example This Meditation though of shorter time yet so far as we can must have its Regulation and Governance 1. It should so near as we can have its stamp and ingredient of holy reverence All thoughts of holy things must not be how sudden soever acts of rashness and over-haste without heed and fear the name of a glorious God is upon every Ordinance that must not be taken in vain 2. It should be the product and issue of holy lingering after God and communion with him from a thirsting for God to taste a little when we cannot have fuller draughts of him 3. It should be the glance of a spiritual Eye looking from love being enamoured with God and Christ and heavenly things Not a looking from Custom and an use to satisfie conscience calling for something may look like a Duty but from the strength and predominancy of the fire of heavenly love Psal 119.97 O how love I thy Law it s my Meditation all the day As other so this sort of Meditation must have a rise from love Love breeds longing and looking it introduces a pleasure in a looking though but a glancing of the Eye on the surpassing beauty and loveliness of God and Jesus Christ and the glorious things of Heaven Ah how excellent is this frame of spirit how sweet and pleasant is it to have the Eye often on these so rare beauties from being as the Spouse in the Canticles both really and deeply in love 4. It should be aim'd and levell'd at the right mark pleasing and glorifying God and for communion farther with him that he may see how the pulse of our Souls beats how the Eye looks how we act and how our hearts make still their holy escapes from the crowd and obstructings of occasions to give him a friendly spiritual visit to let him see the fervour of our love by endeavours so oft as we can to do him homage and honour As when we would shew our high respect and honour to any person we make the more frequent visits when we cannot make long stay So here when throngs of indispensable occasions hinder the set and larger engagements in Meditation make we it up in shorter visits in often thinkings short visits rightly aim'd bring sweet peace Let it not be therefore so hasty as we observe some Children call'd to go to a place that run without their errand to act without aim right aiming the end lays the foundation of a Dutys excellency O let my spirit if I cannot think and dwell long upon heavenly things through weakness let it make up the defect by thinking often Let the dartings upward be the livelier and thicker like a Golden Chain which is very long though the Links be very little O let me trade drive a quick trade with littles Light gains make a heavy purse little frequent tradings will gain me much here This short often acting up will make my heart keep still open to Heaven keep the path-way thither beaten plain easie and so make it pleasant for my spirit to walk in make this Meditation highly sweet a rare refreshing The frequencies of thinkings heaven-ward will have this threefold advantage these three excellent fruits 1. Frequencies of heavenly thoughts will breed and cherish an habitual heavenly mindedness unto that primitive Grace that habit of regenerating Grace which brings a tendency and bent of soul making it incline heavenward it will superadde an habitual heavenly mindedness a heart peculiarly and powerfully ready and active heavenward As an Artist which hath not only reason first to dispose him fit him for his Trade but the peculiar habit a head and hand for it to understand and act as an Artist 2. The frequencies of heavenly will thereby be an exclusive and thruster out of earthly thoughts the right way of a compendious cure It 's not the way so much to stand watching and striving to drive them away to be on the defensive barely but to be on the positive in acting good thoughts that will keep out bad As if Wine first fills the Vessel there is no room for Water if a Treasury be full of Gold there is no room for rubbish 3. This frequent short darting upward will end with leaving an after sweetness upon the palate of the spirit short when heavenly will be sweet as every crum of Sugar leaves some sweetness on the palate every drop of pure live honey a delicious after relish so this short Meditation The Manna that dewed down upon the Israelites Camp lay like small Coriander seeds which they gathered ground and made their Bread of which had a rare rellish This sort of Meditation may gather still some little seeds of heavenly Manna soul-Bread with new fresh delicious sweetness following The heavenly minded person may as the manner of some is go ever with some rich tasted and sented thing in the mouth Whensoever cares and diversions press hard hang heavy draw strongly greatly disquiet and weary thy spirit here is an out-let an escape a rare way of interposition and soul easing diversion yea of a short though sweet and heavenly solace It may be lookt on as a shadow a resemblance of the blessed Apostles sudden carrying into the third Heaven Instantly thou this way art above though presently below again This is far surpassing all the sensual and sinful pleasures in the world These short tastes by giving our worldly occasions the slip and mounting up to Heaven These short visits made there these spiritual short applications made to Heaven to the blessed God to Jesus Christ for communion with him and the Father have more sweet pure powerful and heart elevating joy than is possible to be had in any carnal or earthly things They at the highest brightest and sweetest have something to top dim and embitter them Prov. 14.13 Even in c. But every way of godliness is a path of pleasantness and sweetness which none know but such as try it I now have through Christs assistance finisht this last way of Meditation sudden and ejaculatory and so the whole nature and several kinds of Meditation with such things as are comprised in it according to my slender ability and the opportunity I
not as if they were not at all oblig'd but free from any such engagement of their thoughts any employing of their serious thoughts this way O how many are there to be found that never considered what that noble eye of the understanding was given for they use it as if it were made to look only downward or any other way but upward and heavenward that lose contentedly lose the principal end of that so rare faculty made most peculiarly to mind and contemplate heavenly beauties and excellencies What was said by Duke Alva he did not use to look up to Heaven this may be said of too many yea they may say it of themselves they do not use to look up to Heaven by meditating on the things above Ah sad eye and sad frame of spirit but saddest state not to have God nor the things of God in the thoughts to have an eye made purposely for them above all but uses to look from them not towards them that fixes on the Earth that hath their eyes All and Heaven the allowance of a Nothing 2. Others mistakingly think Meditation may concern some sorts of persons but not them they have no leisure they have no Learning as others have We read of a King when a Treatise of happiness was presented unto him would not look on it but said he was not at leisure O how many are there too like him in this they are not at leisure They can find time for looking every way on every thing fond phansie carries them to but it is for others who have time and a mind to it thus to employ it in Meditation 3. Others there are who think religious seriousness and musing of things heavenly the greatest folly the worst bestowing of thoughts and time they loath all trouble of consideration this way license their thinkings to a roving ranging liberty let their thoughts fly as Children do their Arrows any way and every way but to no certain mark at all with such any way is vanity but walking in the vanity of their minds Ephes 4.17 with them no thoughts are savoury but such as are remotest from Heaven a seriousness and sixing their thoughts is a fettering to their freeness of phansie all stay of thoughts is a meer tediousness and the more spiritual the things are they are perswaded to mind the more unkind entertainment they meet with O that ever that eye which the great soul-maker bestows purposely and principally to act its seriousness and best mindings on best things should be so strangely perverted to an only minding the worst O what a wonder is it that the great Giver of this great Talent of the thinking power doth not totally take it away doth not let it quite quench in a seizing stupidity and loss of reasons use as it happens to some by sad Diseases or that the wildness and wickedness of phansie be not revenged with wildness of phrensie and striking all such willfully mindless sinners mad as sometimes some are and it may be partly on this account O let every one take heed of provoking their God in such a sort and set themselves to ponder what it is not only to forget God carelesly but to refuse to remember him purposely and designedly purposely to refuse minding those things of Heaven which like the lights of Heaven have purposely the greatest â—â—stre and glory that they may have the greatest eyâ—â—gs and lookings upon Every one therefore should learn to be concluded under this great truth under the great necessity and importancy of this Duty see it most clearly Christs blessed way for the frequent and constant walk of his thoughts to improve communion with God and perfect holiness by Lord clear up my Eye to see daily more into the excellencies of this heavenly way and have my spirit lifted up and enlarged in it O let me not faint and grow weary but have the Loins of my spirit girded with strength my goings held up in this path of pleasantness unto the end CHAP. II. A second improvement of this truth by way of conviction and for deep humbling 2. Vse LET this serve for conviction and deep humbling of every one for no better discharging this obedience to the Lord of our spirits and that thinking power of them The natural faculty for thinking was given by God chiefly for spiritual objects and for acting it self in a spiritual way as the bodily eye is given much more for beholding the light of the Sun than the light of Candles That so precious Talent of the thinking power was not lent us by our Lord to embezle and ravel out but to employ and improve for his best advantage not to be as water spilt upon the ground not to be as a spring of pure excellent water which empties it self into some near noisome ditch or is swallowed up in some Bog or Quagmire O no it was given us for excellent ends to act and be in exercise to put forth its strength and vigour upon things most excellent and high in themselves and most sweet and sutable to it 1. Therefore let every person look back and be greatly humbled for those times of childhood and youth and that excessive vanity of thoughts and evils continually evil imaginations as Scriptures charge all with Gen. 6.5 O let us learn much to be humbled for being so long under the total neglect and daily exclusion of all thought-seriousness not at all complying with but dis-relishing but refusing all reducing of the thoughts to any due mindings and ponderings of heavenly things In that forecited 6. of Genesis the Lord when he was threatning the drowning of all the Earth he saw the wickedness of man was great and then among others when he is making a review and looks back to former times the times of mens youth he casts into all the sum of sins the youths sins of thoughts the then evils of its imaginations with the aggravations reckons not the ways only and wildness of youth discovering it self to others but the evil thoughts of youth and punishes for them with other sins I say drowned the world for youth sins yea youngest times thoughts Though youth be least considerable and youths thoughts least of all considered yet the holy God puts these mites into the black bill makes the weights of thought sins to help cast the Ballance hangs these about the sinners necks to help drown them in the flood O let us then look back to them be duly humbled for them humbled for that All of the evil of imaginations humbled that there was then no consideration nothing of this so incumbent Duty this then even in youth so needful duty O what a sad time was that which did not would not meditate that could not would not spare time time from pleasures play vanities and follies time from very toys trifles poor petty despicable things yet so eagerly minding them and being so taken with them enslaved led and befooled by them Ah when the holy God
only in our selves but our own happiness must be aimed at for glorifying God by it We must aim at happiness and being in Heaven thereby to be in a most perfect state that we may attain the most perfect principle for the highest exalting of God Althugh in Heaven seeing more and tasting more and having the vessels of body and soul filled up with glory and happiness makes our state more glorious yet the end of that seeing tasting and all enjoyings there are to put us into a most perfect capacity highest heart-readiness and alacrity upon the most over-powring incentives to lift up to the utmost the glorious praises of God This then is a very considerable particular that besides glorifying God the supreme end aiming at our own salvatition must be more then for our selves We use to speak of several spiritual ends relating to our own spiritual good which we are allowed to set up and seek and strive after yet all these must have this reduction must all have this glory of God for their chief end The last end as hath been said gives the rules to all both subservient ways and ends Therefore in our examination let us take in all the spiritual ends before spoken of for heavenly light and larger knowledge for a spirit of wisdom to be wiser to salvation to be warmer at the heart melt off all incumbrances make up to Heaven better to fix our resolutions firmer strengthen our grand purpose of still walking with God to stablish our course and make straiter steps for our feet and to press harder to the mark Are our spirits acted to these aims and all those other Meditation is so excellently and usefully appointed to 2. Do we meditate in the right way of calling off our thoughts from impertinencies and diversions Do we set a strong guard upon our spirits and watch them diligently Do we act Meditation in bending our minds to it strive to act with all seriousness we can Do we act searching and pondering and keep up constancy of thoughts till we both bring our hearts to the heavenly temper and the duty to the kindly issue it should have and cannot be content with any thing but that a God who sees our actings will approve of CHAP. IX Of the Directions relating to Meditation First for such as would begin AFter some Characters given of a right Meditation I shall next speak of Directions or Rules to be observed about it The Rules must be suited to the several sorts of persons that will set upon this work or proceed in it with success 1. If it be a person who would enter upon this way being sensible of the sin of hitherto neglecting it and is now willing to be advised how to perform it Then consider it is no undertaking it or hope of doing it aright and holding on with constancy and to the spiritual advantages of it unless there be an endeavour after a right principle a living spring within to found and still feed a due performance of this spiritual work To undertake it without thou wilt find it too high and hard arrive at the best at a formal doing a slight and overly doing and in the end grow weary of it and cast it off and so return to it no more Therefore thy great intendment to which thou must bend thy self and whole soul which should not must not be given over until it be effected is to make sure of a new heart this will bring in a new power a new principle introduce a bent and inclination of spirit a love unto it a firm and abiding purpose a rooted resolution for doing it against all difficulty and opposition This will make the duty of Meditation easie and also sweet by the pleasure and advantages found in this heavenly way thou wilt be encouraged to hold on success will encourage thee that will sweeten the way to thee and help to stablish thee in it Though thou canst not change thy own heart and make it new lay in a new principle of Holiness but it must be God who gives the new heart Ezek. 36.26 27. And works the will and the deed of his own good pleasure Phil. 2.13 Yet as he calls thee to convert and in order to thy converting requires thee to consider and bethink thyself so is it thy necessary and important duty to consider and ponder deeply and frequently those things and in that manner order which are most effectual to that end which God uses to set home For by putting thy self into Gods prescribed way of seriously and frequently considering thou mayest meet with a help with God helping at last who helps them that seek him diligently and give not over striving That relation is remarkable of the bad Son whom his father dying calls to him and gets him to make this promise That every day he should for but one quarter of an hour meditate of some one thing or other what he would Accordingly he every day employs a quarter of an hour or some time in serious thinking But this at last most happily issues in serious considering his sinful state and a real converting to God at last Thus often it hath come to pass when persons have set themselves to consider as God in Scripture exhorts it hath ended in a true returning so the Prodigal is described Luke 15. So Ezek. 18. If thou art very desirous more particularly to be here directed what to do to obtain the right principle and thence the right way of acting this duty and others in the holy and spiritual required manner I must not engage far in so large a point yet if I exceed something it will I hope get pardon Only I shall mention some particulars more necessary for this so weighty a concern If really and in good earnest thou wilt engage strive to purpose for obtaining a sure principle of performing this or any duty aright a principle of Grace and Holiness a new heart and a new spirit 1. You must go about it with the greatest seriousness that ever thou canst and endeavour the firmest and strongest purpose for prosecuting it till thou hast attained it But then thou must see thy utter inability without Gods lending a hand to help thee in so high an undertaking It is thou must endeavour but God he must draw thee Joh. 6.44 No man can come to me unless the Father draw him Thou must strive for but God must give repentance 2 Tim. 2.25 If God will give repentance Jer. 31.18 Turn thou me and I shall be turned Ezek. 36.26 A new heart will I give you Yet God must see us when he calls for returning to endeavour and strive and wait for his giving who works the will and the deed of his own good pleasure 2. Thou must resolve to sequester thy self at times at fit seasons from all diversions not suffering any thing then to interrupt thee thou must sit alone as Lam. 3.28 3. Do all thou possibly canst to be awakened
and faithful to thy self as to lead thy thoughts to think of Hell and ponder that place and state taking often the weight of the crown of glory the worth of the Jewels of that Crown and think in greater earnestness of the Riches of that Kingdom of Glory thy own unspeakable happiness with that rare rich annexed Jewel Eternity The losing of it is from not looking on it most losing it from looking aside to the world The best go but slowly to Heaven because they mind it so remissly and move so easily A way the best way to be the best Marksman at Heaven should be every Christians great study This is wisdom for thy self to meditate study thy self into the Art of winning the Crown of Glory Weigh Hell and Heaven unspeakable insufferable and eternal eternal torment and wo with inconceivable and eternal never fading happiness and highest glory Represent more effectually see feel more sensibly the fearful and woful case of a damned soul realize it with the best industry and Art thou canst use and be not so sinfully soft nice and tender of touching or of dwellings and searchings by this way of thoughts force thy self to feel the pains and scorchings of this Hell prepared and the fulness of Gods wrath poured out and then represent and realize to thy self happiness and glory with thy utmost ability and industry as if thou sawest it in all the fulness tasted it and wert feeding to the full at Christs Table in his Kingdom There are strange Artifices to get Crowns and Kingdoms Ah! act Meditation into an ever-growing more covetous of the gain ambitious of the honour contentious for to have the victory over all difficulties in the way of this most transcendent Crown of Glory The wise Merchant seeks and buys the Pearl Mat. 13.46 The wise Meditater weighs strives for and wins the Crown 3. Improve Meditation all you can as to the grand and most principal means be very high and hard Students for that excellency of knowledge the knowledge of Christ and him crucified and better applying of him To see daily more what a way Christ is to the Father what fulness dwells in him Col. 1.19 how freely he is offered how mighty and ready he is to save to the uttermost Uttermost of guilt by righteousness and forgiveness of wrath by reconciliation of shame and vileness by dignity and adoption through his blood To the uttermost of darkness by being our light uttermost of our errours by being put on as truth uttermost of folly by being applied as our wisdom uttermost of corrupt affections and carnal aims choices and distempers of will and finfulness of the whole soul by being our sanctification 1 Cor. 1.31 Yea to the uttermost f all misery and to perfect felicity Strive to meditate better to have Meditation issue in a growing knowledge of Christ sweeter savour stronger recumbencies on him larger receivings from him more intimate fellowship with him and a more worthy walking of him 4. Let thy Meditation be more improved in that particular of the great Applier of Christ to thee and mighty Helper of thee the holy Spirit how to better entertain him and by obeying please and delight him and not grieve him that he always may be ready to assist enlarge and comfort thee seal thee and shed abroad the love of God in thy heart 5. Strive after a better meditating on all the precious promises so as more to strengthen Faith heighten Hope and have the fuller Communion with Christ by them 6. So meditate of the Ordinances as they be more highly valued and endeared and be more instrumental for thy meeting with God in them and commanding his blessing by them of light warmth strength and encouragement 7. Mightily contend to exacter musings and ponderings of thy hearts great wickedness and deep deceitfulness Make Meditation a better clue and thread to lead thee into all intricacies and windings of that maze and labyrinth wherein thou art so ready to be lost and art often lost To know it more perfectly in all its cheats and deceits but with an earnest looking up to God the heart-searcher to manifest thy self unto thy self So for the methods and dephts of Satan thy unwearied enemy which will not be understood unless studied and minded much 2 Cor. 2.11 We are not ignorant saith the Apostle of his devices He was not ignorant this way this must be knowledge by minding and studying of them Though God teacheth yet not without our endeavour setting our thoughts to search and find out his practices and subtilties If we are careless herein God may instead of helping us against him let him loose upon us to act his frauds and fury that our buffetings may awaken us into mindings of him and endeavours of being acquainted with his devices Meditate therefore more to be an experienced skilful Artist here and grow more cunning to see into his practices 8. Meditate more of that enemy the world that makes the baits for covering Satans hooks without which he could not so catch as oft he doth neither could we be so catcht from our own corruptions if things of the world did not occasion our deceivings The fuel and tinder is without the spark and fire is within the lust is within but the bait is without Jam. 1.14 Every one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own concupiscence and enticed If the bait were nothing to us there would be no catching of us if the world were vanity all things as crucified to us having no beauty and loveliness in them there would be no danger Meditate to a discovery more of the worlds vanity and that insufficiency in every thing but God to make us happy and to thereby a weanedness of heart from those things that will neither fill or fix satisfie us or stay with us CHAP. XIX But more particularly 1. THou must earnestly act and strive to improve thy Meditation on those things which concern thee in thy rank and age of Christianity There are some Babes little children in godliness others are young and strong men others are fathers so 1 Joh. 2.12 13 14. The strong men must act according to their age and rank in Christianity not as babes or little children the strong Christian must not does not look to little childrens lessons return thither and strive to no more Heb. 5.12 To use milk stick at barely the Principles of the Oracles of God and Doctrine of Christ Chap. 6. v. 1. But uses strong meat takes forth the higher lessons in Religion beyond children The Apostle saith The word was in them and they had overcome the wicked one They were besides knowledge of the Principles improved to such knowledge of the Word higher knowledge that they knew what was proper of the Word and how to use it as fitted them to combat with Satan and overcome him The strong Christian must be busied in higher matters therefore must act Meditation higher study and learn those lessons
Christian is a person of great excellency it is very highly extolled in the Scripture This David though not presently yet attained in time as Psal 119.99 100. I have more understanding then all my teachers I have more wisdom then the ancients 3. To have the richest treasury of heavenly truths the fullest stores of precious experiences Meditation is the greater gatherer of them and the improver of them on all occasions It becometh not a Christian of long standing to be poor and unfurnished of holy experiences The Psalmist we may see drawing forth his experiences and telling them to others Psal 3.4 5. I cryed and he heard Psal 18. almost all the Psalm he puts all the pearls of deliverances experiences that way on one silken thread of this one Psalm together So Asaph Psal 77.6 I call to remembrance my song in the night what joy he formerly felt though now he wanted it Thus oft the Saints in Scripture The Apostle 2 Cor. 1.10 Who hath delivered and doth he had his experiences ready 4. More peculiarly your great exercise which others cannot so well reach is to be much implied in the deepest Mysteries the highest points of Faith and the hardest matters of practice I mean not so much such sorts of difficulties in Divinity those which great skill in the Tongues and Arts will require and that must have long time much study which the necessary occasions of very many cannot admit and are not necessary for every man to understand But such higher matters of godliness as may more Jude 20. edifie you in your holy faith increase your obedience to a more fruitful and exact walking Eph. 5.15 See ye walk circumspectly accurately or exactly the word is thus the higher contemplations of the Nature of God his Attributes and Titles the Works of God Creation and Providence his wise righteous and holy Administrations and Government 1. Government in the whole world and all things in particular in it to the least circumstance the falling of a hair from the head 2. Government and that so rare and admirable towards the rational creatures but most observable astonishing towards his Church and his dear Saints This as some of our Divines say of Gods Government of the world and matters in it is to be one of the great Meditations of Christians that are by the Apostle called Fathers who having obtained formerly much acquaintance with other truths of more necessary use for their then rank and standing now are to busie themselves in these high Mysteries for furthering Faith and Godliness The Mysteries in the two Books of Scripture and Nature are the two Tropicks or Lines between which thy Meditation should move and bound run its course and keep within this compass which is useful and safe In sum let thy Meditation be improved all thou canst for the setting up of the main mark for the fullest aiming at it the hardest pressing toward it with all contendings for an excellency of wisdom eminency of holiness exemplariness of conversation and exact walking together with all industriousness after that peace which passes all understanding joy unspeakable and full of glory the establishings and heightning of them with longings and hastnings after that appearing of the Lord and crying Come Lord Jesus come quickly Conclusion Now this so highly important duty of holy Meditation having been as to the nature kinds necessity and excellency so fully discovered and demonstrated the great sinfulness of neglecting it evinced the dangers following the neglect manifested the practice with such high inducements and powerful Scripture-arguments urged home and the way respecting all sorts of persons in so many Rules and Directions cleared Application general Then all who know these things are utterly inexcusable that know these so greatly necessary things and will not comply with the careful practice of them Ah! therefore let every one most earnestly beg it of God to write this his Law of holy Meditation in his heart to give the right wisdom to understand the way of it the firm purpose and resolution constantly to perform it yea the practice of it with sweetest solace and highest delight Let me say to my soul Necessity is laid upon me It is an Imperial Law of the great King of Heaven if I do it not great guilt will be contracted great wrath of a God will be kindled my soul will deeply be wronged If I have not act not good thoughts my heart will act evil thoughts will fill with evil thoughts will fix and habit it self in them be quite over-run with them I shall have a spirit stained deeply dyed into habitual vanity of mind yea I may be given up to judicial penal vanity of thoughts It may be to terrifying and most affrighting thoughts That I which would not be brought to think of the threatnings of a just God and his terrible Curses That would not meditate of that greatest of evils sin of my heart and life-sins shall have all my sins set in order before me held and kept staring me continually in the face That I who would not meditate of the most blessed God his Christs fulness his Spirits sweetness his Heaven and everlasting Happiness shall now have represented to my thoughts and be made to see Satan Hell and eternal Death continually before me Yea to be under such amazements and terrours to be so haunted and followed that at last it may be insupportable and quite overwhelm me O therefore let me not so sin against my own soul and for ever undo my self by wilful or heedless neglecting this duty which lies so indispensibly upon me and may be so advantageous to me O how many are continually guilty of self-destroying for want of a timely self-bethinking By a slighter thinking for want of serious thinking By a too short thinking for want of the necessary allowance of time and space for thinking By a too seldom thinking and not using due frequency of thinking By acting meer phansie and imagination and not wise consideration Adams first state was good yet mutable but it was not a sin or imperfection to be mutable And though this mutability of his will was a ground of his fall yet it was his incogitancy was the first blamable cause he fell by acting sudden too hasty imagination and not due consideration he considered not all things to be considered Thus ever since the falls of sinners are generally more by incogitancy haste and hurries of fancy and imagination want of consideration though there be sins also of deliberation not precipitations but presumptions When God reduces a sinner he brings him from swaying phansie and carelesness to considerateness Ezek. 18.28 Because he considers and turns he breaks the reeden Scepter of phansie and inconsideration and brings in and sets up the golden Scepter of wise consideration So Acts 2. Men and brethren what shall we do Acts 16.30 Sirs what must I do to be saved But O what pity is it that any soul should perish for want of
a little thinking Shall I suffer my self to be of that simple sort and to be carried away in that crowd to utter ruine If I neuer yet walkt in this heavenly thought-way the greater reason I have to hasten into it But if I have tasted tryed and found the surpassing sweetness and advantages of it have I not high encouragement to make a farther progress still in it And if by long beating this path I have largely experienced the most abundant pleasantness and sweetness have I not then greatest inducement to go on the more both evenly and earnestly Ah! then my soul consider with thy self the liberties the latitudes the pleasures and satieties which thy eye may still expatiate and recreate it self in by this rare Art of Divine Meditation Look to thy ways thy eye-ways their varieties and excellencies which are so many and of that transcendency that there never were nor can be any so various and spacious of that delicacy beauty and glory The wise and holy heart hath far the advantage of all the great Scholars and Artists all the highest Nobles and Princes he hath better walks and rarer eye-entertainments in his happy way of Meditation Ah! then my soul how canst thou in the least sort be slothful and backward to this so pleasant performance and soul-enriching way this so easie ascent to Heaven by the paths and steps purposely made thee to mount up thither See what plenties of rare provisions are made to entertain and take up thy thoughts What multitudes of fittest objects What sweet and precious things lie full before thee to give thee a full employment at all times and with a very great variety to be a preventive of weariness and cloying and introduce a more fulness of satiety and delight Thou hast that great Book of the whole Creation all the several most stupendious and glorious Works of God to take and look over all the guilded leaves and there to meditate on wonder after wonder Thou mayst carry thy eye over all the Earth full of Gods Riches descend into the bowels of it meet with all the hid Treasures and Rarities lockt up in the Makers rich Cabinet there below Thou mayst go upon the so large extended Waters through the paths of the Seas see the things of excellency in the one and other Thence thou mayst ascend up the steps and stories of the Air and Firmament the glorious Heaven beyond it with the so glorious Lights of such astonishing magnitudes and motions orders and influences Thence then mount up thou mayst to the highest Heaven that most holy place the Worlds most glorious piece and fabrick that Palace of the King of Glory with all his so glorious Retinue and Attendants of millions of millions of most happy Saints and Angels O what an ample provision is this for my spirits particular help and solace my eye-accommodation and recreation Yea how unspeakably gracious must I have declared my God to be towards me had I only been favoured with the ten thousand part of the things my Meditation can recreate it self upon Ah! but my soul thou hast more graciously afforded thee by thy God another book that richest Treasure of most infallible necessary and saving Truths there may I most highly meditate and satiate my self with that highest Mystery of godliness all the wonders concurring and meeting to make it up and among them that most especially of the so astonishing so all-amazing Mystery of God manifested in the flesh The very highest thought-walk given for a created Nature to take its most ravishing solace in Not only for sinners redeemed by the Lord of Glory but those of that uppermost rank of Nature that never needed a Saviour from sin yet being mutable creatures might all have fallen But in Christ their Head being given in their election to him and thence preserved by him These blessed Angels have this Mystery of Godliness this Lord of Glory Jesus Christ their Head of continuation of happiness the most transcendent object of their highest contemplation and admiration O what an account then shall I render to my God if I do not design and endeavour Meditation in some good degree proportionate and answering the so inconceivable eye-obligation and engagement herein lying on me But O my soul this is not all thou hast yet another Book besides that of the Creature and the other of Scripture the book of thy own self state and heart wherein with singular advantage thou mayst constantly busie thy thoughts most seriously And if thou art Christs Temple knowest his dwelling in thee thou mayst find it like the so glorious Temple of Solomon built of costly stones of spiritual excellencies over-laid with that pure gold of inward Holiness and Sanctification throughout Having in it that fire of heavenly love descended on it burning in it the Altar for offering thy self by Christ in thee a whole burnt-offering the golden Altar Christ for the perfuming of all thy services to ascend as Incense up to God and be pleasing most sweet and acceptable with him There you may find the golden Lamps with the seven glorious lights the Lord of light thy wisdom making thee light and shining in heavenly knowledge and wisdom Nay there may be found the golden Ark with the Testimony the Law by the finger of Christ written on the fleshly tables of thy heart and the Mercy-seat or Propitiatory whereby thou art made to God a friend by Christ who is the Propitiation residing in the Temple the hidden man of thy heart the Cherubims of glory cover thee and thy whole man made the Temple of the Holy Ghost dwelling and working in thee O what precious matter of Meditation may thy own glorious state and the beauties of Graces and Holiness the new creature formed in thee after the image of Christ and the Spirit of life and power to the highest praise of the infinite love of the most blessed God afford thee even that God who in riches of free grace hath thought upon and from all Eternity chosen thee to be a vessel of glory and honour O how many and many rare objects as have been formerly exprest are given and set before thee to improve Meditation upon And to and above all if there be not enough large enough high enough sweet enough and satisfying thou hast to search and dive farther into the infinite power of the All-sufficient God especially his infinite loveliness and sweetness to take thy highest solace fullest satisfaction in Ah! then my soul lift up to the utmost thy self in most glorious praises unto thy God who hath appointed such a way as this of heavenly Meditation to hedge in thy thoughts wildness and wandrings to help up thy thought otherwise earthliness Bless him with all that is within thee for vouchsafing and sanctifying so happy a way for thy both thought-imployment and improvement Bless him with all heart-enlargements thou canst for making thee so spacious and large walks Most highly rejoyce in him who hath afforded thee so transcending pleasant and delightful walks for thy thoughts to take their happy turns in Say unto thy God O what is man that thou art so mindful of him so mindful of that silly mind of man as to prepare and fit for him such blessed mind-walks and these in so great variety of excellency spiritual excellency for such pure pleasure and ravishing delight O then my soul never deny the doing of this work never defer the doing to a better time when time is now O be not heartless and listless dead and dull not uneven and inconstant in the fervent performance of it O daily contend to higher excellency in this heavenly Art to have the wings of thy spirit longer and stronger to soar a higher pitch to take a more nimble flight and make larger returns of blessed advantages in peace joy satisfactions of ravishments and highest raptures of spirit and by this assent of holy Meditation mount up still higher and higher till thou touchest Heaven it self till contemplation ends in vision and fruition of the most infinitely glorious God himself Vision is accompanied with plenary and most perfect satisfaction perfect happiness for ever To which most unspeakably glorious God the most infinitely highest Beauty and Excellency for the eye by contemplation to act and dwell upon the Father chiefly in his infinite riches of free Grace the Son in his infinite fulness of Redemption the Holy Spirit in his most glorious Inhabitation and Application of that Redemption be Honour Glory and everlasting Praises of Saints and Angels for ever Amen Soli Deo gloria FINIS