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
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
have no other means for it and the walks wherein the Spirit comes 4. Use to cast a wishly eye on all such conducing things formerly mentioned as thou canst have opportunity 5. Look to well enter into and fix upon the Meditation daily examination of review looking over matters of the day and if hindered at any time help it by after-industry I say the Meditation of Review in the close of the day to see and judge thy self as to thy hearts frame and thy carriage in the time of the day This at the first is like the working with an Awkhand this must not be slubbered over slightly done But being harsh and unpleasant work at first thou must so manage it in care and constancy that thou mayst gain a hand at it it may become easie and pleasant Suarez a Jesuit says of himself that his times of self-reflection and examining his conscience for matters of the day were the sweetest part of all the day Thy Rule must be to perform this work so as it proves easier and sweeter and thereby thou improvest in it The more impartial and sincere you are in it the sweeter you will find it The more accurate and exquisite your inquiries and heart-searchings are and the more impartial towards your self the sweeter peace the higher boldness and confidence will thy heart be filled with For this brings in the clearer evidence of thy sincerity thy impartiality Nothing perfumes the spirit of a Christian with sweeter peace and more heavenly joy than a clear discovery of the hearts uprightness and integrity which by searching our hearts and impartially judging them we attain As Psal 26.1 2. David prays Judge me O Lord for I have walkt in mine integrity And Psal 139.23 Search me and see if any way of wickedness be in me This came from his own first impartial searching and finding his sincerity Vsual and diligent self-searching brings in and keeps up a setled peace and confidence by a mans being daily more assured of sincerity and heart-uprightness Be careful therefore and diligent in this self-searching CHAP. XI Of the Directions for particular Cases of young Christians how they should do therein BEsides these more general things last mentioned I must next come to the Rules of Meditation as to thy particular case and condition Here that thy Meditation must pitch upon will be either 1. The Case of thy assurance either wanting and not yet attained or else weak and feeble 2. It must be something relating to sanctification thy weak grace and many imperfections here the purging of thy heart from divers evils subduing of new rising and stirring corruptions some particular sin that haunts and troubles thee some temptation which follows thee some cross or affliction lying heavy upon thee or any other particulars wherein thou art concerned here to meditate how to have help the best and speediest 1. That is a principal point of wisdom to study and ponder the case of thy peace and assurance of Gods love and favour if not yet obtained or but enjoyed in a small measure accompanied with divers doubts and fears to meditate how best thou mayst come to assurance and be strong and stablisht in it How to have thy good condition made out to thee and thy fears discouragements and doubts may seatter and be driven away Here thou must be willing to take pains and resolve to exercise very humble patient waiting Psal 27.14 Wait on the Lord be of good courage he shall strengthen thy heart wait I say on the Lord. Psal 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayst be feared 5. I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait 6. My soul waits more than they that watch for the morning I say humble patient waiting until by frequent ponderings and searchings thou art replenisht with such a furniture and treasury of Scripture-grounds Gospel reasons and inducements and these so full and clear as thy heart now changed by the gracious help of the Holy Ghost who assures by the Gospel-promises arrives at the skill and wisdom as to be able to answer thy own cavilling doubting spirit and to repel the false reasons that Satan uses to hinder thy peace and assurance Assurance is chiefly bottomed on our sanctification assured So Divines say assurance of Election Justification Perseverance and Glorisication cannot be without assurance of Sanctification this being the ground of our assurance in the other four In particular thou must labour to draw forth out of the sure Word of Christ the infallible Characters clear descriptions and evidences of the new creature and of sincerity of grace then meditate and ponder so duely upon these sure evidences and right Scripture-descriptions given of the new Creature and sincerity of grace as to come to as clear and distinct an understanding of what is held forth to thee as thou canst I pass divers things might be mentioned and shall touch on the following 1. As that change and renewing of the mind and judgment which in respect of sin is to have it out of measure sinful Rom. 7.13 The greatest evil in all the world as that only contrariety and emnity to the greatest good namely the infinitely blessed God his insinite holiness and purity and all his so infinitely glorious Attributes yea his very Being with his Soveraignty and Government all his most holy righteous and good Laws and Word the signification and demonstration of his Soveraignty over us and of his will concerning us Hereby likewise manifesting the extreme injuriousness and unrighteousness in sin in regard of God whom upon infinite and indispensible obligations we are engaged perfectly to obey And as the abounding sinfulness of sin must be seen so as the judgment disallows all known sin the very least so there must be an universal liking and an allowance of all good of all known Truths and all known Duties Truths as revealed by God and to be believed by us and Duties commanded by God and to be performed by us 2. In seeing the fulness 1 Pet. 2.7 of beauty and excellency with the mightiness of Christ to save in all respects all that come to God by him by faith with the vanity of all earthly things to make us happy and the excellency of Grace Holiness Faith Love and the other required heavenly graces and soul-abilities and beauties above all other endowments This is the first part the first right change of the mind and judgment 1 Cor. 2. Whereas the natural man knows not the things of God nor can he because they are spiritually discerned 2. The next part of the new Creature is that change and new heavenly frame of that noble faculty the will Rom. 7.18 To will is present Oft in the Psalms David mentions his will his choice his curpose his firm and rooted resolution Psal 119.8 I will keep thy statutes Vers 30. I have chosen the way of truth Vers 106. I have sworn and will perform to keep thy righteous judgments Isa 56.4 That abuse
that my soul could Meditate still better flye farther mount higher be more upon the wing make sweeter and more happy discoveries and prove a greater proficient in this Heavenly way Meditate with desires and breakings of Soul to dart up the highest you can to Heaven and stay there CHAP. XV. Of the next Affection Love 2. THe next Affection which sends a Great Artery of vivifical Heat a glowing Heat into this Meditation is that of Heavenly Love Love to the Duty and the Excellent things to be Meditated upon Love is the great Heart Fire made to warm every holy service Ps 119.97 O how Love I thy Law it is my Meditation all the day Love led him into this pleasant soul walk of sweet Meditation and Love kept him company kept his heart warm in it The fulfilling of the Commandment is Love Rom. 13.10 and Love is the fulfilling of this Commandment of Meditating It is performed in Love This Heart vital Heat of Love must move to and in Meditation must glow through the whole work all the time of it Meditation is either of the infinite beauties of the most blessed God the infinite perfections and surpassing glories of his Essence and Attributes and of the Three Persons in that Essence or else of the precious Word or Works of God his general Providence and Government or his peculiar Governing of the reasonable Creatures especially that so stupendious work of Redemption by Christ and all those things which are reducible to his praise which must needs being so beauteous have their surpassing loveliness And therefore there is great reason to act love abundantly towards them To have Meditation still richly perfum'd with actings of burning love all over it O let Love ever come in and act its part in Meditation wherein the Souls Eye is not only glancing but wishly viewing the surpassing beauteous things of Heaven or such things as may lead up to Heaven Ah if I cannot ascend in a Flame of love yet let me in Meditation flye up in some sparks of Love If my heart cannot burn in the flame of Love let it keep warm upon the Embers of Love Let Love give it a spirit vigour and liveliness As Solomons Temple was inwardly all overlaid with Gold let this rare work of Contemplation be overlaid and inlaid with Love Cant. 3.10 as Solomons Chariot in the Canticles the midst of it paved with love so let this Chariot of Contemplation the midst of it be paved with Love This is the Second Affection Love CHAP. XVI Of the last Affection Delight 3. THE last Affection to make a threefold cord to draw up the heart in Meditation and that winds the work up higher and that is a great superadded Beauty and Glory is the Affection of Delight Joy and Pleasure Meditation must not be a dull sad and dispirited thing Not a driving like the Chariots of the Egyptians when their Wheels were taken off but like the Chariots of Aminadab Cant. 6.12 Make me like the Chariots of Aminadab that ran swiftly So let us pray Lord in Meditation make me like the Chariots of Aminadab that my swift running may evidence my Delight in Meditating Holy David makes Delight such an Ingredient or Assistant here that sometimes he calls this Exercise of Meditation by the Name of Delight Psal 119.16 speaking in the foregoing Verse of this Meditation I will Meditate in thy Precepts in the 16. verse I will Delight my self in thy Statutes which is the same with Meditation only with superadding the excellent qualification due Meditation should have This Name is given from this noble concomitant As Wisdoms ways are all paths of pleasantness so this path it hath its pleasantness and sweetness Contemplation hath its rare and most pleasant walks No Habitation hath such Rooms such Galleries within of pleasure Nor Gardens without with such Walks and Curiosities No Situation or Stand such Prospects and varieties of delightful Eye-Objects as Meditation enjoys All Objects that Nature or Art can present to the Eye are meer Shadows and Nothings in respect of the rich and rare Furniture the Eye of Meditation is provided with The Traveller whose fect and helps have carried him the farthest whose Eye and Observation hath viewed and taken in never so much variety and Curiosity that hath recreated ravisht and satiated it self never so largely with any of the most taking things the whole Worlds fullness comprises hath not cannot come neer to and compare with the transcendencies of purest highest Soul-refreshing ravishing Delights this high Operation and more sublime acting conveighs and gives in where the Object is spiritual the Eye Spiritual the heart holy and spiritual and the way of acting upon this Spiritual Object is Spiritual as every way or Ordinance of Christ is Or where the Object is excellent the faculty exercised on it is excellent the Medium or way of Applying the Faculty to the Object is Excellent There the Delight and Pleasure is most rare and excellent There are sundry sorts of pleasures There are sensitive pleasures of the external Senses as of Hearing Seeing Tasting and the like These are very various and very great too often too bewitching and besotting There are Phansie Imagination-pleasures I say the pleasures of Phansie which are rare and higher than those of the outward Senses Imagination and Phansie which is a quick sudden short and shallow apprehension of things it is not judgment that ponders but a sudden slight taking in and acting this is especially in some sorts of persons a very high Spring and strong Feeder of Delight or Pleasure of Pleasures that come like things fresh quick and spirited to the Body and Senses Phansies O how they perfume like richest scents please like briskest and most racy Wine Phansies though often very fond and vain yet are great insets of Delight 3. There are Intellectual Pleasures Rational Joys and Delights These are more high sublime and refined and therefore more sweet such as the Pleasures of understanding new rare Notions excellent Speculations and apprehensions of solid and precious Truths and the Minds Musings on them Tasting feeding on them this in it self is a more transcending Delight than the two former though Phansies weigh more with some yea though sensual Pleasures take most with abundance 4. But there are beyond the former namely those that are spiritual Pleasures Delights found and felt in a holy and spiritual Heart in one that hath a Principle far above Sense and Phansie and Natural Reason that a renewed Mind a Spiritual Understanding a Wisdom from above only reaches and relishes and these are best and sweetest when they are not only taken into the Soul by an act of apprehension and conceiving of them but when they pass into the more inward Room or Office of the Mind into the Judgment when they are there detained in Consideration and by Meditation give down their delicious sweetness like Grapes in the Wine-Press Meditation is such a Soul Engine such an instrument of such
a manner of Operation that nothing in the World the highest Objects of Sense Phansie or meer Natural Reason can act with that Complacency and Delight Solomon in his Ecclesiastes that rare Record of his so large and infallible Experience of all things for Pleasure and Delight tells us he found nothing so sweet and which he could act upon with that Delight as when he acted up in Meditation Eccl. 12.13 David oft expresses what joy he acted in this soul-engagement yea tells us as he did so he will delight himself in it and the Heavenly Objects of this Heavenly work Heavenly things and a heavenly heart meeting in Meditation will act and make the purest pleasure Meditation therefore must have this Attendant of Delight which like a flame like the Chariot of Elijah carries up the soul in musing into Heaven CHAP. XVII Some other particulars added in some special Scripture expressions BEsides these three Affections of strong Desire ardent Love and holy Delight that like Heat and Spirits conveyed from the Arteries arising in the heart into all the Body to adde to and compleat what we have in some measure exprest there are these Three or Four things I shall a little speak to 1. Meditation should be a work very savoury on the Palate of the Soul 2. It should be sweet and pleasing to it 3. It should be with satiety in it 4. With an Admiration as the Crown on the top of it 1. It should be performed not as a thing that is dis-relishing but savoury to the Spirit in the doing Rom. 8. Those that are after the Spirit savour the things of the Spirit There are some things are unsavoury in themselves others though savoury yet not savoury to some Palates The things of Heaven are none of them in no degree unsavoury in themselves Meditation is not so in it self but to a carnal Spirit it is one of the greatly unsavoury things greatly displeasing and disrellishing But to the Spiritual man it is not so but a work singularly savoury like Isaac's savoury meat like feeding at some noble Feast where a good stomack and a right Palate feed and savour still savour the delicacies and varieties successively every thing is savoury There are some things savoury as Nature yields them others and in great variety as Art reduces and orders them and accordingly there are very admirable diverfities of savoury things which have their degrees of savouriness What great varieties are there made by Art from the meanest food to the highest delicacies yet in the Gospel Feast of Fat things full of Marrow and Wine on the Lees well refined in the Feast of all heavenly varieties Meditation hath more unspeakably rare dainties than all that Nature or Art can yield 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor ear hath not heard what God hath prepared for them that love him Not the greatest of the greatest Princes not Solomons most Glorious reast not Assuerus his Royal Feast not any of the Persian or Roman Emperours so much spoken of in Histories could occasion a Feeding with such high savouriness as may be had in the rich and precious things Meditation hath to feed the Soul with Therefore O let Meditation be still most savoury let every spiritual thing be very savoury as there are more varieties of Objects and higher degrees of Excellency in them endeavour a sutable an extensive and an enereasing savouring As men at a Feast pass from the first Dishes to the after Dainties with a more eager feeding and better relishing This is the first thing As Meditation should be savoury the soul well relishing of it so likewise 2. It should be sweet This I further adde in that the Spirit of God is pleased to honour this pious expression of the Holy Prophet by recording it for us who after a most heavenly Torrent of Elegancy in expressing the surmounting Excellencies of God in the wonderful ways of his workings and governings says there in the close of Psalm 104.34 His Meditation of God should be sweet How sweet must Meditation be upon infinite sweetness and from whom all other sweetness Creature-sweetness Word and Ordinance-sweetness derives it self Psal 119.103 O how sweet is thy Word to my taste sweeter than Honey to my mouth This must be chiefly by Meditation It is that which presses and sucks out the rare sweetness in the Precepts so Holy and Righteous in the Promises so precious in the incour agements so high and in all the excellent things in the so perfect word of Christ He not only asserts the sweetness he found in Meditation but is transported with high Admiration And when he could not speak of it to the height and fulness then which is our usual manner when we are at a loss for expression in words of comprehensiveness to wrap up our selves in the elegancy and terms of an Interrogation and Admiration yet not contented with this way for fuller representing his experimented sweetness he takes up a comparison says sweeter than Honey which in that pure Air of that blessed Land of Canaan was the most surpassing sweet Honey in the World Yea in Psal 19.10 Sweeter than Honey and the distilling of the Honey-Comb which is the sweetest of all others But this was in holy Meditation that made the Honey melt in his mouth and give down its sweetness Meditation that drives the Hive drains the Honey and drops in the delicious sweetness into the Musing Spirit Lord teach us the way of this Heavenly Art and make this Honey drop and the Heavenly Manna of Divine Truths fall richly into our hearts This is the second particular 3. Meditation may and should be attended with an Heavenly and spiritual satiety Psal 63.5 My soul shall be satisfied as with Marrow and Fatness when I remember thee on my Bed and meditate on thee in the Night-watches His rare hours introduced and made returns of Heavenly satisfaction The largeness and excellency of it he sets out by a very sutable expression satisfied as with Marrow and Fatness which to the stomack yields the best satisfaction the speediest and sweetest the most large and lasting No food satiates better than Marrow and Fatness So Isa 25.6 7 c. The Gospel Feast is a Feast of Fat things full of Marrow There are the Fat things of a perfect righteousness applyed of a full pardon obtained of Reconciliation and Peace with God made John 1.12 and glorious Adoption conferred through Christ the Feast of the Feast together with the satisfaction of the blessed Image of Christ in the beauteous lineaments of Holiness and righteousness light and life of all Graces and Excellencies and all drawn to the life and wrought up by the Holy Spirits Inhabitation and Operation and arising from Believers happy Union and Communion with Jesus Christ and his fulness And likewise as a glorious superaddition that of Assurance of a most happy condition and of the unchangeable love of God and that blessed Hope of Eternal Life which strews