Christ that he may both be admired of Saints and Angels and magnified in the sight of all wicked men and Devils Therefore he now is to appear in the highest glory splendour and power And he being made now the visible Judge this must be most glorious in that it is the consummating work of his Mediatory Kingdom preceding immediately his delivering up his Kingdom to God the Father as the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 15.24 For the method and most fruitful way of this so very necessary Meditation I conceive it may be 1. To begin with those Scriptures that most clearly and distinctly present us with the infallible certainty of this grand point 2. To then gather up the Remarkable particulars of it in Scripture as to the Nature Manner and the things that both accompany and follow it 3. How to manage it to our being best moved and stirred up by it 1. For the infallible certainty of this Judgment day let me look out those Scriptures in the Old and New Testament that speak perspicuously of it and then labour by Meditation and Prayer to sink deep into my heart to lay them so strongly to infuse as to leave a deep abiding tincture upon it To be put into a full possession and assurance of Faith in this so high soul-concernment In Jude 14. Enoch the seventh from Adam that so walked with God and that was first translated prophesied of the Lords coming to Judgment Job who is supposed by the Learned to have lived when the Israelites were in Egypt and before Moses time in his 19. Chapter 25 26 27. verses hath a most clear and full assertion of his Redeemers being the last day on the Earth and seeing him then c. Solomon Eccl. 12.16 God shall bring every thing to Judgment every secret thing good or evil Dan. 12.2 They that sleep in the dust shall arise some to shame others to life In the New Testament out of Christs the Judges own mouth Math 25.31 to the end This Doctrine is most fully with the particulars and manner of it described and in the other Gospels often So the Apostle of the Gentiles Acts 17.19 At Athens the great Vniversity of the World he tells them God had appointed a day to Judge the World in righteousness and by the man Jesus c. Rom. 2.16 In that day that God shall Judge the secrets of mens hearts So we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ c. 2 Cor. 5.10 2 Thes 1.7 8 9 10. Christ shall come in flaming fire to render vengeance to all that know not God and obey not the Gospel And Revel 20.12 13. to the end I saw the dead stand before God and judged according to their works c. The varieties of places in Scripture are like many Candles lighted in one place like multitudes of Lights in the Heavens all to give light to us below that we might have clearest discoveries firmest Faith strongest instigations to yield full compliance and obedience with greatest readiness pleasure and sweetness O I must answer for having the Scriptures the varieties perspicuities convincing Reasons and perswading endeavours of the Spirit of God towards me in them and by them The more in the Scripture is done for me the more will be required of me This for the first 2. The particulars remarkable to be gathered together of this day as the nature manner c. 1. I must meditate of the Person the so great and glorious Person that shall be Judge which is God himself as the Scripture often tells us as Eccl. 12.16 Rom. 2.16 as was mentioned before God shall judge c. Though this be greatly considerable under which our Faith must be concluded and this alone well pondered may greatly awaken awe and provoke us to all fulness of regard and care yet the Word tells us farther it is God by Jesus Christ so in Acts 17.19 God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World by that man he hath appointed Hath committed all judgment to the Son It is not committed to the holiest man that ever lived nor to any mighty Angel it is too high an Honour too great a Work for any created Nature only fit for him that is God and man For by being God there 's both an Omniscient and Omnipotent an infinitely Holy Righteous Good and Merciful Judge And by being Man there 's to all mens eyes a visible Judge that the Scriptures may be fulfilled And this for the Saints surpassing joy but the wickeds greater daunting and terrour let in by the eyes both of the one and other All must be judged by a Judge their eyes shall behold 2. For the time of his coming Mat. 24.42 it cannot will not be known At what hour your Lord will come you know not 3. For the suddenness and secresie of his coming 2 Pet. 3.10 The Lord will come as a Thief in the night Math. 24.44 At an hour you think not your Lord comes 4. For the place whence he sets out and comes 1 Thes 1.16 The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven 5. It will be in power and great glory such as never was and never the like again shall be never did the Sun of Righteousness ascend to and shine in such a Meridian such a transcendent height of glory Tit. 2.3 Looking for the glorious appearing 6. For the company and retinue it 's all the whole Court of Heaven come to wait on their King of Glory All the glorified Saints and Angels leave Heaven empty to make up his Train thousand of thousands giving their attendance Jude 8. With thousands of his Saints 2 Thes 1.7 Comes with his mighty Angels Math. 25.31 Cometh and all his holy Angels with him O what an unspeakably glorious attendance this is 7. For the dreadfulness of his coming 2 Thes 1.7 Christ is revealed coming in flaming fire 2 Pet. 3 10. The Heavens shall pass away with a great noise the Elements melt with fervent heat the Earth with the works in it burnt up 8. As a preparative to the Judgment Christ descends from Heaven 1. with a shout never was there such a shout made in all the time the world stood 2. with the voice of the Arch-Angel and the Trump of God the Voice and Trump at Mount Sinai where six hundred thousand might hear that was a glorious and most dreadful voice and sound but nothing like this Never such a voice that which will make the whole world ring and the dead rise out of their Graves and with the same bodies the same numerical bodies that lived here 3. Those that are alive shall be changed in a moment in the twinckling of an Eye on the sound of the Trump 1 Cor. 15. 4. The dead in Christ shall rise first be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air 1 Thes 4.16 17. O blessed and most joyful meeting of the Saints that were on Earth now raised changed and
this Building the better to bear it up These should be as so many great Arteries branching forth from the Heart to convey vital spirits into the body of this heavenly Duty of Meditation and keep it alive and warm and improvingly active CHAP. VI. Of the proper Objects of Divine Meditation FRom things of a remoter relation to the subject in hand I pass to such as are the nearer the more intrinsical and peculiar And here comes first to be handled the Matter or the Object of this Meditation When the wise King Solomon was to build the Temple first he is providing the rich and precious Materials then he proceeds to the framing and fitting of them and then to erecting and finishing that glorious Structure That which next is to be done is first to look out the Materials of our work and then the framing and finishing up is to follow The Materials or objective parts are far more rich and precious than those of Solomon's Temple They are as our Description of Meditation holds them forth either 1. Such as are more properly and purely spiritual and heavenly in their own Nature 2. Or things considered in a Spiritual way and to a Spiritual end and use It is not the Consideration of things as to their Entity or Being that is Metaphysical Metaphysicks treat of Entities of the meer Beings of things Of the first Being namely God and of secondary Beings derived from God the first Being It is not the Consideration of things as Rational the Rational respects things have one to another this is Logical Logick that considers respects of things as Causes Effects Subjects Adjuncts and the like It is not the Consideration of things in their particular Natures and Natural properties This Natural Philosophy Contemplates It is not the Consideration of things Civil Moral or Political these Moralists and States-men are exercised about Neither is it the consideration of particular Crafts and Trades this is Mechanical and but a work prudential and Humane not Divine But this Meditation hath Objects of a far higher Sphere and Rank things of a Divine and Theological Consideration Nay nor yet is it the meer Study of things Theological and Divine A man may be a Student in Divinity beat and busie his Brains about the high points and Mysteries in it may read and muse on Matters Divine and yet not be a Meditator such as we speak of not act Divine Meditation A man may act upon things as Notions and as matters of Knowledge or to make up an Universal knowing person he may act Contemplation for Curiosity for such an use as the Heathen man Aristotle made of reading Moses his first Chapter of Genesis whereof he passed his undue and heathenish censure that Moses affirms all but proves nothing he read first and then pondered and then censured But he acted not Meditation not that we speak of It was not a consideration of spiritual things as spiritual and for spiritual ends but only as wise man acts his thoughts upon things as New for New notions and improving Knowledge Many thus consider things Scriptural and Divine study them as we call it study Books of Divinity study things in the Scripture but they act not the Duty of Meditation They act upon things as Matters Intellectual and Rational not as Heavenly and Spiritual Act for Notion and Speculation and not for Holiness Act Curiosity not Christianity The right Meditater far transcends any meer Student he acts a more Noble part hath a more Noble and sublime manner of Operation Aristotles studying Moses Writings and David's Meditating in the Law of God how far do they differ So a Heathen's or a Mahometan's or a Jew 's or any such persons studying matters in the Bible differs greatly from Meditating in it Nay many Protestants are great Students in Divinity that never Meditated they dwell upon the study of it but touch not with the least of their fingers the hard work of holy Meditation But to return to our matter in hand and to speak to this subject of Meditation Formerly it was said that Spiritual things or things in a Spiritual and Heavenly manner considered are the proper and adequate Object of this Meditation And bere O how large and fair a prospect hath the Spiritual Eye to Expatiate and Recreate it self in The Infinitely Glorious and All-sufficient God the Father Son and Holy Spirit as the Scripture reveals The vast world the frame of Heaven above and Earth below with all the so innumerable things contained in them Their sundry Natures Properties and Vses with the so beauteous and various Excellencies of them The mighty Sustentations and Preservations of all things Created as to their Beings their Faculties and their Acts. The most wise righteous and holy Governing of them with a most steady and never erring hand unto their particular ends and with a most certain winding them all up ultimately in the Supream scope of the great Creator and Governour Then that peculiar Government of the rational Creatures Angels and Men The unspeakably sad full of some Angels and all Mankind The Recovery of some men and their Eternal Salvation by Christ the Redeemer God in our Nature Here here is matter of Meditation The great mystery of Godliness as 1 Tim. 3.16 And particularly the four last things as they are called namely Death Judgment Heaven and Hell Besides there is for Meditation the whole Book of boly Scriptures now compleat in the New testament-Testament-times with the Ordinances of Christ and the Covenant of Grace And lastly the Meditation of that so great concern our own particular Estates how matters stand with us and are like to be with us to all Eternity which Eternity challenges and imposes on every person the greatest both intensions and frequencies of thoughts But though this be so great yet again what is there in all the vast circumference of the whole world I say what is there although never so small but by a wise and holy heart may be an Object improvable to an excellent use and end As the Art of Chymistry can extract rare and efficacious Remedies out of Dungs Putrefactions and Poysons That Soul must be a pitiful vain and barren piece that wants matter and mind to move and act fruitfully in so large a sphere and compass as Meditation hath It affords the whole latitude of all things properly spiritual And it comprises likewise all other things which in some respect or other wisdom can improve by this rare Art No Artist in any way of Operation with all his rare Instruments and efficacious Engines can operate more eminently than an Artist in this holy kind may do Of this the Scriptures give plentiful proof in the many Precedents left us in it for imitation So we see it in holy David in many of his Psalms besides them of the Word of God his greatest Subject of Meditation in those made of God's great works yea the works of his common Providence and Guidance as the
1. Let me first begin with the meritorious cause of it That which Heathens knew not Nature saw not Philosophy and Learning could not find out nor reach only holy Scripture tells me and shews it to be that most black inlet sin Rom. 5.12 Death entred into the world by sin and v. 17. By one mans offence death reigned not only entred but reigned hath mastered and will master all sinners Sin that greatest evil in the world sin the only contrariety to the living God that gave life to man at first and ever since sin that only injury to the blessed God bred and brought death the greatest misery to man here sin that provoked God to pass the sentence sin occasioning the vindictive cause the Justice of God to let in death death with the consequences of it that would follow without a Mediator that Adam knew not of Death so considered is the way of the very deepest revenge a God can take But then this black part of it bodily death without that blacker Train of Hell and Eternity in it is that which must challenge a very great proportion of ponderings 2. Let me look at not only the rise of it and the bare wrath occasioning the inflicting it but that so fixt and irreversible sentence that like the Law of the Medes and Persians cannot be broken Heb. 9.27 It 's appointed for all the universality of sin hath given death an universal sting and the Statute of Heaven hath impowered Death's Extensiveness over all and set a seal of irrevocableness to it as to all men Therefore it is appointed I must think particularly for me whatever I am or do or can in utmost possibility do I must not once think of making an escape from it Yea let me consider as I must die so the very Year Moneth Day Hour and Moment is immutably fixt and can never be altered Job 14.5 the place also where the means whereby the manner how all circumstances about it are unchangeably determined 3. But how material is that particular of the uncertainty of the time and manner to me that 's a reservation and secret kept in the Lord 's own breast not possibly to be exactly known before without it be revealed as Christ of the Great Day of Judgment saith Mat. 24.36 Of that day and hour knoweth no man And Verse 42. Ye know not what hour your Lord will come And 44. In such an hour you think not your Lord comes so the two latter may be applyed to this of death when he calls for an accompt of our Stewardships and Talents and passes particular and personal Judgment 3. Let me pass next to the Meditation serious pondering of the nature of it and that great dreadfulness of that most terrible of terribles that King of terrours Job 18.14 Here that I may duly look on it let me look up for a God to teach me as to number my days Ps 90. so to be wise to consider my latter end to do that hard work overcome that difficulty of looking Death-watd Nature abhors the thinking of it Corruption all it can opposes it but Grace must bring and fix earnestly and often the Eye upon it familiarize death to me let me then Eye my dissolution the parting of the two nearest dearest friends the Soul 's taking its sad farewel of its former dwelling it s going going in an instant out of the Body and then that which Death doth as an Enemy to all former Life concerns and as an entrance upon an Eternal Condition 1. As an Enemy to all enjoyments how sweet soever Pleasures all now quenched Honours now all dasht Riches and Estate now all lost Power now utterly ceast 2. An Enemy to all Relations Friends Acquaintance now must I shake hands with all nearest and dearest the sweetest and most helpful Relations 3. An Enemy to all Imployments necessary or pleasurable no Work no Business no Invention after it 4. An Enemy to all Opportunities and Means of Grace never to read the Bible more never to hear one Sermon more never to receive the Lords Supper more never to make one Prayer the shortest of one of the fewest words more and then also when thou art just launching into the length of vast Eternity But now must be Prayerless and totally helpless yea now thy Souls condition becomes becalmed and thou canst not obtain one gale of the Holy Spirit to blow upon thee and help move thee in any measure 5. It s an Enemy quickly to the curious frame and so exquisite building of thy body with all its parts and members made with such adaptations and sutableness whatever with all the Tempers Qualities Offices Abilities and Actings of it An Enemy likewise to all the senses seeing hearing the two disciplinary with feeling tasting smelling the so likewise necessary 6. It is an Enemy and Destroyer of all comliness and beauty form and shape And all these former by being the Enemy and Destroyer of that thy so sweet and precious life by making that Jewel drop out of the Cabinet of the Body or rather driving forth thy immortal and invaluable soul bringing with it a Writ of forcible entrance coming with an Execution to turn out that old inhabitant of the body securing it from regaining possession making it stand empty and thence exposing the body to rot ruine turn to dust and expose it to Oblivion as if it had never been But then upon thy Souls thus leaving thy Body immediately and instantly it is cast upon a state of Eternity of Misery if thou wert not in Christ or felicity if found and dying in him When Life ends Eternity begins O this all amazing Eternity this so vast and inconceivable Eternity no way to be exprest or set forth no way to be understood or known a Glass that is ever running a Chain that is ever lengthening who can number the Sands of this Glass who can reckon the links of this Chain of Eternity without stop or period bound or end O let me be ever musing of this Ever have it so full in my Eye while I have time this moment of time here that it may wind up and leave me in possession of most happy Eternity But to affect my spirit aright and be wise in the due managing of this Meditation of dreadful Death let me look to and ponder the Scripture Commands for remembring and considering my latter end and the Arguments strongly inducing to it How frequently and earnestly is it urged upon all O let me lay the weight and stress of them close to my heart not suffering it to put by the thoughts of death how awk and averse soever my carnal spirit is towards it Let me therefore not only muse on the sentence the peremptory and irrevocable sentence passed upon all in general and so upon my self in particular but on it as ready to be executed this hour yea this moment for ought I or any in the world can tell Ah let me say to my self the
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
concern as to work off all my usual wonted easiness and slightness of thinkings on this particular And to arrive at a contrary habitual seriousness and earnestness of mindings frequent thinkings yea let my spirit not rest till I am reduced to and improve under the powerful and prevailing provocations of it to whatever so great a thing calls for from me That I may daily more answer the intendments of a God in relating this Hell so plainly and plentifully in his Word for my due notice of it My way then must be a course of serious pondering the Scriptures passage after passage wherein the second Death and Hell is set forth in the several Books As in Isa 30.1 Tophet is prepared of old even for the King he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle it An elegant description in an allusion So those many clear passages of Christs own mouth set down so plainly as words can utter Math. 5.22 and 29 30. In that very first Sermon of Christs on the Mount there he mentions Hell-fire and casting into Hell three several times Mat. 11.23 Brought down to Hell Luke 16.23 The Rich man is said to be in Hell Pet. It 's called a Prison Prisons being the wors of places made for securing and punishing Rev. 20.1 A bottomless Pit Luke 16.23 A place of torment Mat Their worm dieth not alluding to that worm that breeds in and feeds on the body is lying gnawing and cannot be cured Their fire goes not out Fire is the most quick and active the most tormenting and torturing Element It 's Brimstone that is the fuel which is a most combustible noisom and suffocating matter It 's call'd utter darkness Darkness is a most dreadful and disconsolating thing as that of Egypt For the company it is only wicked persons perfect in sin and most wretched Devils the worst of Creatures Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels O how hot and scorching must that fire be that purposely is prepared for utmost torment Not like Nebuchadnezzars Furnace seven times hoter but seventy times hoter that which is inconceivable In Scripture Hell or the state of misery is exprest by the terms of second death death one death in any kind is very dreadful above all other things but after dying a first death then to come and dye a second death and this not so easie as dying any bodily death millions of times over If a Malefactor should die the most cruel death and then be made to live again and then die that death a second time yea thousands and thousands of times over O how sad were the case of that person that must be so under the both fears of that death first and then the torments and pains But what is all this to this second death being under the fullness of infinite wrath and that for ever The inflicter of this misery is no less than an infinitely wise holy sin hating and an omnipotent God acting in the purest and fiercest wrath endeavouring the fullest revenge the damned creature is capable of and for which it purposely is made a vessel of wrath and that vessel is preared to receive and hold this wrath 1. Prepared by being widened extended as it were to receive the fulness of wrath As the Saints shall have their spirits elevated and extended to the utmost to be made fit to receive the fulness of glory and happiness so the damned have their spirits widened and enlarged their understandings and hearts in the utmost extensiveness that they be brim-full of wrath 2. Prepared by being purposely strengthened to the utmost as Vessels are made strong to hold the strongest Wine or Liquor to hold and keep in that wrath poured into them Were Hell but to have the least torment in the least member or sensible part as in the Toe Finger or the like for ever or but one torment in a noble part Head Liver Heart or a complication of many sad diseases for ever how intolerably sad were this state but to have all possible trouble and torment both in body and soul set on by a God for ever O how unspeakably sad is this All the forenamed this imprisonment this tormenting this worm this fire the weepings the wailings the gnashing of teeth is not for an hour a day a month a year an age nor a thousand years or ages or what can be reckon'd by millions of millions but for ever no rest for ever no ease for ever no hope of any deliverance or degree of it for ever but sorrow torment and terrour sinking in despair and hopelesness for ever ever ever O then to improve this Meditation and make it operative upon my spirit Let me first look upon Hell begun in that terrour and horrour the wicked instantly upon their raising up from the dead and changed are seized with The hot burning Coals of Hell are thrown into their bosom fill them up and lie burning and scorching as they are both bringing to the judgment seat and are standing before Christ at the Bar all the time of their arraignment Never did any poor guilty prisoner stand in such a fear as this fear and were so amazed 2. The then unspeakable shame Then all the time of their arraignment and especially on the pronouncing of that dreadful sentence which will be passed and executed O what must be the unspeakable shame mixt with the continuing and encreasing sad horrour Dan. 13. O what must be that shame when all things possible concur to load and cover them with shame never was there nor can be such a shame poured upon any A shame in the greatest concourse that ever was or can be all the Saints and Angels yea all the wicked and the Devils every particular ashamed also before all their own company in this so desperate state 3. And especially a transcendent shame in respect of the infinitely glorious Judge the Lord Jesus despised and sinned so against by so many Ah what must be the shame of wicked men to stand uncover'd with open faces to see the so dreadful Judge looking the arraigned person full in the face looking with the most wishly Eye and stern countenance upon I say their uncover'd faces to have all their sins ript up every one adding still to the shame but then when the dreadful sentence passes O what the shame will farther then be And yet far more when the sentence is Executed they driven away and all Devils and men thrust into the Dungeon of darkness what an everlasting shame will that be Now O now to think of all their unexpressible losses of such a Bill of losses as never was seen loss of God himself his face and communion with him Father Son and Spirit loss of the company of all the Saints and Angels lost Heaven and all its glory lost and all that happiness that arises from all
from this Divine Meditation There are many other high advantages I may add as particularly 1. As for brightening and clearing of knowledge this was mentioned on a former occasion 2. Meditation serves for improving the judgment the most judicious Christians are such as meditate most Persons of a short spirit whose thoughts are not full length not well sized where thoughts touch as a perfect round thing on a perfect plain as lightening passes through the Air and stays no time Not like the Sun that not only shines but stays that staying of his light makes the best discoveries of things so when things are stayed and have fuller length of time this is the way to be a judicious Christian to attain a spirit of judgment the shorter you think the shorter will you be of a judiciousness in the things of Heaven 3. Meditation keeps up and improves an awakened and tender conscience as bringing in more plenty of light and acting it more upon the spirit acting stronger reflections deeper searchings fuller discoveries in respect of the frame of the spirit within and the conversation without They that study themselves most will be most awakened to greater sensibleness care and fear and set the strongest watches upon their deceitful hearts 4. Meditation makes a Christian keep up his actirity and liveliness the best actings are bottom'd on the heart put best in frame by raised elevated and most spiritualized thoughts It is greatly conducing to greatest growth souls if we would have them fat and flourishing Psal 92. have the Garden of Graces and the Beds of Spices flourish and flow forth they must have as the other helps of heavenly Ordinances so the hand of a constant Meditation to water them he that best orders the first Wheel the first Mover will have all the following move more regularly and exactly The spiritual disadvantages must needs be great where holy Meditation is neglected and never used or but seldom or slightly used The advantages may be the rule of judging the disadvantages but I shall in particular mention some of the spiritual disadvantages and then come to the improvement of all that hath been said 1. The first disadvantage and that is a prejudice to purpose a total neglect of Meditation or an usual doing it slightly and formally not seriously and diligently is a great and principal ground of mens abiding in a state of vanity a living wholly to no purpose but utterly besides the grand end that man was made for that supream end the infinitely wise God the maker of man and thereby the total and absolute proprietor in and owner of his all and that end of living to God and glorifying him vanity I say in a wholly missing his end and chief mark For who can take aim at any mark that eyes it not or looks not earnestly and evenly at it that either looks quite another way or looks with a regardless eye at the best The blessed Apostle tells us he lookt with another eye Phil. 3.13 with an eye that lookt not off or lookt easily but the best mark had the best aim he lookt for life The Scripture calls a sinner a vain man Jam. 2.20 for his living besides his main end ever in every thing missing that chief end which rises from being wanting in aiming right and that want of aiming is for want of minding Never can aiming which is an act of the Will intending is an act of the Will aiming is the intending of a mark never can aiming be right unless considering or meditating be right be due and earnest with evenness and constancy That heart which comes not to be reduced to minding its chief end will miss it utterly at last The reason why there is so much vanity in the best is partly yea greatly upon this little minding this slight uneven and seldom looking wishly and well at the main mark of God and happiness 2. Disadvantage sinful security a sleepy soul state and heart hardning a sinking and decaying in godliness is grounded much upon disuse of meditating especially Meditation of review and self-reflections Jer. 8.6 No man repented every one rusheth into his course Not considering bottoms both sinners and Saints security and growings worse If faln asleep if falling and in a declining state awakening and recovery must be by self-bethinking 1 King 9.47 No wise man but hath need of frequent reviews and weighings again over and over of the best of his doings much more of the Errata the Errors of them 3. Givings way to evil and vain thoughts will follow your neglect of good thoughts The mind will be ever busie if not in good then in that is evil giving way to vain thoughts is very dangerous men by giving way to vain thoughts provoke God to leave them to give them up to a walking in the vanity of their minds Ephes 4.17 and at last as to a customary vanity of mind God may give them up to judicial dis-relishing and abhorring holy things and the thinkings of them and so perish in them O let therefore the good hand of my God so stay up and act my weak and warping spirit with the strongest and most efficacious Reasons and inducements in this so greatly important and necessary so sweet and blessed an Ordinance this heavenly meditation that I may ever prove a better Artist in it a better Christian by it Having now dispatcht the reasons and grounds of this so great and necessary Duty of Divine Meditation with those things which concern the nature and several ways or sorts of it I must now come to the fourth and last propounded particular namely the right improvement of the Doctrine or assertion of the necessity on all to meditate upon heavenly and spiritual things to exercise themselves in this so concerning advantageous and blessed business CHAP. I. Of the improvement of the Doctrine of Meditation by way first of instruction THis being so concerning a work and having so strong an influence upon the whole course of Christianity let us now endeavour to beat out this Gold extend it and make it appliable to the state and condition of all sorts of persons in all the useful ways we can 1. Inference Then if Meditation on spiritual things and earthly in a spiritual manner in such seriousness searchings and dwellings of the thoughts upon them for such high and holy ends is so needful for all Christians to exercise Instruction 1. It serves then to hold forth a light of instruction to all that own the Lord Christ the Golden Scepter of his Word and the obligation laid so indispensibly on them to see how they are call'd upon to own and observe it to tread and walk continually in this sweet and pleasant path this so righteous and good way Divers there are who call themselves Christians and would be counted good if not so good as any which yet lead a life of inadvertency and quite overlooking of it mind not this Meditation as if it concern'd them