The Saints Everlasting Rest, Treatise 4 · Chapter 6
CHAP. VI. Containing the Description of the great Duty of Heavenly Contemplation.
§. 1.SECT. I.
THough I hope what is already spoken be not unuseful, and that it will not by the Reader be cast aside, yet I must tell you, that the main thing intended is yet behinde, and that which I aimed at when I set upon this Work. I have observed the Maxime, that my principal end be last in execution, though it was first in my intention. All that I have said, is but for the preparation to this: The Doctrinal part is but to instruct you for this; the rest of the Uses are but introductions to this; The Motives I have laid down, are but to make you willing for this; The Hinderances I mentioned, were but so many blocks in the way to this; The general Helps which I last delivered, are but the necessary Attendants of this: So that, Reader, If thou neglect this that follows, thou dost frustrate the main end of my design, and makest me lose (as to thee) the chief of my labor. I once more intreat thee therefore, as thou art a man that makest conscience of a revealed duty, and that darest not wilfully resist the Spirit, as thou valuest the high delights of a Saint, and the soul ravishing exercise of heavenly Contemplation, as all my former moving Considerations seem reasonable to thee, and as thou art faithful to the peace and prosperity of thine own soul, that thou diligently study these Directions following, and that thou speedily and faithfully put them into practice: Practice is the end of all sound Doctrine, and all right Faith doth end in duty: I pray thee therefore, rosolve before thou readest any further, and … here as before the Lord, that if the following Advice be wholsome to thy soul, thou wilt conscionably follow it, and seriously set thy self to the Work, and that no laziness of spirit shall take thee off, nor lesser business interrupt thy course, but that thou wilt approve thy self a Doer of this Word, and not an idle hearer onelyonly. Is this thy promise? and wilt thou stand to it? Resolve man, and then I shall be encouraged to give thee my Advice; if I spread not before thee a delicious feast, if I set thee not upon as gainful a trade, and put not into thy hand as delightful an imployment as ever thou dealt'st with in all thy life, then cast it away, and tell me I have deceived thee, onelyonly try it throughly and then judg; I say again, if in the faithful following of this prescribed course, thou dost not finde an increase of all thy graces, and dost not grow beyond the stature of common Christians, and art not made more serviceable in thy place,Tamen haec via & scientia non discitur ex libris, sed de sursum est: & cui vult participat eam pater luminum, his quidem clarius, his verò obscurius. Gerson part 3. in Alphabet. divini amoris Cap. 14. and more pretious in the eyes of all that are discerning; if thy soul enjoy not more fellowship with God, and thy life be not fuller of pleasure and solace, and thou have not comfort readier by thee at a dying hour, when thou hast greatest need, then throw these Directions back in my face, and exclaim against me as a deceiver for ever. Except God should leave thee uncomfortable for a little season, for the more glorious manifestation of his Attributes and thy integrity, and single thee out as he did Job, for an example and mirror of constancy and patience, which would be but a preparative for thy fuller comfort. Certainly God will not forsake this his own Ordinance thus conscionably performed, but will be found of those that thus diligently seek him. God hath, as it were, appointed to meet thee in this way: Do not thou fail to give him the meeting, and thou shalt finde by experience that he will not fail
SECT. II.§. 2.
THe duty which I press upon thee so earnestly, I shall now de…scribe and open to thee: for I suppose by this time thou art ready to enquire What is this so highly extolled work?Description. Why, it is, The set and solemn acting of all the powers of thy soul upon this most perfect object [Rest] by Meditation.
I will a little more fully explain the meaning of this description, that so the duty may lye plaine before thee. 1. The general title that I give to this duty is [Meditation] Not as it is precisely distinguished from Cogitation, Consideration and Contemplation, but as it is taken in the larger and usual sense, for Cogitation on things spiritual, and so comprehending consideration and contemplation.
That Meditation is a duty of Gods ordaining, not only in his written Law, but also in nature it self, I never met with the man that would deny: But that it is a duty constantly and conscionably practised even by the godly, so far as my acquaintance extends, I must, with sorrow, deny it: It is in word confessed to be a Duty by all, but by the constant neglect denyed by most. And (I know not by what fatal customary security it comes to passe, that) men that are very tender conscienc't towards most other duties, yet do as easily overslip this, as if they knew it not to be a duty at all: They that are presently troubled in minde, if they omit but a Sermon, a Fast, a Prayer in publique or private, yet were never troubled that they have omitted Meditation perhaps all their life time to this very day: Though it be that duty by which all other duties are improved, and by which the soul digesteth Truths, and draweth forth their strength for its nourishment and refreshing. Certainly I think, that as a man is but half an hour in chewing and taking into his stomack, that meat which he must have seven or eight hours at least to digest;; so a man may take into his understanding and memory more Truth in one hour, then he is able well to digest in many. A man may eat too much, but he cannot digest too well: Therefore God commandeth Joshua, That the book of the Law depart not out of his mouth, but that he Meditate therein day and night, that he may observe to do according to that which is written therein, Josh. 1.8. As Digestion is the turning of the raw food into chyle, and blood, and spirits, and flesh: So Meditation rightly mannaged, turneth the Truths received and remembred, into warm affection, raised resolution, and holy and upright conversation. Therefore what good those men are like to get by Sermons or providences, who are unacquainted with, and unaccustomed to this work of Meditation, you may easily judge. And why so much preaching is lost among us, and professors can run from Sermon to Sermon, and are never weary of hearing or reading, and yet have such languishing starved souls; I know no truer nor greater cause, then their ignorance, and unconscionable neglect of Meditation. If a man have the Lientery, that his meat pass from him as he took it in; or if he vomit it up as fast as he eates it, what strength and vigor of body and senses is this man like to have? Indeed he may well eat more then a sounder man, and the small abode that it makes in the stomack, may refresh it at the present, and help to draw it out a lingering, languishing, uncomfortable, unprofitable life: And so do our hearers that have this disease; perhaps they hear more then otherwise they needed; and the clear discovery and lively delivery of the Truth of God, may warm and refresh them a little, while they are hearing, and perhaps an hour or two after; and it may be it may linger out their Grace, in a languishing, uncomfortable, unprofitable life: But if they did hear one hour and meditate seven, if they did as constantly digest their Sermons as they hear them, and not take in one Sermon before the former is well concocted, they would finde another kinde of benefit by Sermons, then the ordinary sort of the forwardest Christians do. I know many carnal persons do make this an Argument against frequent preaching and hearing, who do it meerly from a lothing of the word, and know far less how to Meditate, then they know how understandingly to hear: Only they pretend Meditation against often hearing, because that beeing a duty of the minde, you cannot so easily discern their omission of it. These are sick of the Anorexia and Apepsy, they have neither appetite nor digeston: the other of the Boulimos, they have appetite, but no digestion.
SECT. III.§. 3.
2. BUt because Meditation is a general word, and it is not all Meditation that I hear intend; I shall therefore lay thee down the difference, whereby this Meditation that I am urging thee to, is discerned from all other sorts of Meditation. And the difference is taken from the Act, and from the object of it.
1. From the Act, which I call [The set and solemn acting of all the powers of the soul.]
1. I call it the [Acting of them] for it is▪ Action that we are directing you in now, and not relations or dispositions yet these also are necessarily presupposed: It must be a soul that is qualified for the work, by the supernatural renewing grace of the spirit, which must be able to perform this Heavenly exercise. Its the work of the Living, and not of the dead. Its a work of all others most spiritual and sublime, and therefore not to be well performed by a heart that's meerly carnal and terrene. Also they must necessarily have some relation to heaven, before they can familiarly there converse: I suppose them to be the sons of God, when … perswade them to love him: and to be of the family of God, ye… the spouse of his Son, when I perswade them to press into his presence, and to dwell with him: I suppose them to be such as have title to Rest, when I perswade them to rejoyce in the Meditation of Rest. These therefore being all presupposed, are not the duty here intended and required: But it is the bringing of their sanctified dispositions into Act, and the delightful reveiwing of thei… high relations: Habits and Powers are but to enable us to Action To say [I am able to do this, or I am disposed to do it] doth nei…ther please God, nor advantage our selves, except withal we really do it. God doth not regenerate thy soul, that it may be able to know him, and not know him▪ or that it may be able to believe and yet not believe; or that it may be able to love him and yet not love him: But he therefore makes thee able to know to believe, and love, that thou mayest indeed both know, believe and love him. What good doth that power which is not reduced into Act? Therefore I am not now exhorting thee, to be an able Christian, but to be an Active Christian, according to the degree of that ability which thou hast. As thy store of money, or food, o… rayment, which thou lettest lye by thee and never usest, doth the… no good, but to please thy fancy, or raise thee to an esteem in the eyes of others; so all thy gifts, and powers, and habits which lye still in thy soul, and are never Acted, do profit or comfort thee little or nothing, but in satisfying thy fancy, and raising thee to the repute of an able man, so far as they are discernable to the standers by.
SECT. IV.§. 4.
1. I Call this Meditation [The acting of the powers of the Soul] meaning the soul as Rational, to difference it from the cogitations of the soul as Sensitive; the Sensitive soul hath a kinde of Meditation by the common sense, the Phantasie, and Estimation: The fleshly man mindeth the things of the flesh:Rom. 8. If it were the work of the Ear, or the Eye, or the Tongue, or the Hands, which I am setting you on, I doubt not but you would more readily take it up; but it is the work of the soul, for bodily exercise doth here profit but little. The soul hath its labor and its ease, its business and its idleness, its intention and remission, as well as the body: And diligent students are usually as sensible of the labor and wea…ness of their spirits and brain, as they are of that of the members of the body. This action of the soul, is it I perswade thee to.
SECT. V.§. 5.
3. I Call it the acting of [All] the powers of the soul, To difference it from the common Meditation of Students, which is usually the meer imployment of the Brain. It is not a bare thinking, that I mean, nor the meer use of Invention or Memory; but a business of a higher and more excellent nature: when Truth is apprehended only as Truth, this is but an unsavory and loose apprehension; but when it is apprehended as Good, as well as True, this is a fast and delightful apprehending: As a man is not so prone to live according to the Truth he knows, except it do deeply affect him, so neither doth his soul enjoy its sweetness, except Speculation do pass to Affection: The Understanding is not the whole soul, and therefore cannot do the whole work; As God hath made several parts in man, to perform their several Offices for his nourishing and life, so hath he ordained the faculties of the soul to perform their several Offices for his spiritual life; the Stomack must chy lisy and prepare for the Liver, the Liver and Spleen must sanguify and prepare for the Heart and Brain, and these must beget the vital and animal spirits &c. so the Understanding must take in Truths, and prepare them for the Will, and it must receive them, and commend them to the Affections: The best digestion is in the bottome of the Stomack; the Affections are as it were the bottome of the soul, and therefore the best digestion is there: While Truth is but a speculation swimming in the Brain, the Soul hath not half received it, nor taken fast hold of it; Christ and Heaven hath various Excellencies, and therefore God hath formed the soul with a power of divers wayes of apprehending, that so we might be capable of enjoying those divers Excellencies in Christ, even as the creatures having their severall uses, God hath given us several senses, that so we might enjoy the delights of them all: What the better had we been for the pleasant oderiferous flowers and perfumes, if we had not possessed the sense of Smelling? or what good would Language or Musick have done us, if God had not given us the sense of hearing? or what delight should we have found in meats or drinks, or sweetest things, if we had been deprived of the sense of tasting? Why so, what good could all the glory of Heaven have done us? or what pleasure should we have had, even in the goodness and perfection of God himself, if we had been without the affections of Love and Joy, whereby we are capable of being delighted in that Goodness? so also, what benefit of strength or sweetness, canst thou possible receive by thy Meditations on Eternity, while thou dost not exercise those Affections, which are the senses of the soul, by which it must receive this sweetness and strength?
This is it that hath deceived Christians in this business; They have thought that Meditation is nothing but the bare thinking on Truths, and the rolling of them in the Understanding and Memory? when every School-Boy can do this, or persons that hate the things which they think on.
Contemplationis accessus duo sunt, unus in intellectu, alter in affectu unus in lumine, alter in fervore, unus in acquisitione, alter in Devotione. Bernard. in Cant. Ser. 46.Therefore this is the great task in hand, and this is the work that I would set thee on; to get these Truths from thy head to thy heart, and that all the Sermons which thou hast heard of Heaven, and all the notions that thou hast conceived of this Rest, may be turned into the blood and spirits of Affection, and thou maist feel them revive thee, and warm thee at the heart, and maist so think of heaven as heaven should be thought on.
There are two accesses of Contemplation (saith Bernard) one in Intellection, the other in Affection, one in Light, the other in Heat, one in Acquisition, the other in Devotion. If thou shouldst study of nothing but Heaven while thou livest, and shouldst have thy thoughts at command, to turn them hither on every occasion, and yet shouldst proceed no further then this; this were not the Meditation that I intend, nor would it much advantage or better thy soul; as it is thy whole soul that must possess God hereafter, so must the whole in a lower measure possess him here. I have shewed you in the beginning of this Treatise, how the soul must enjoy the Lord in Glory, to wit, by knowing, by loving, and joying in him; why, the very same way must thou begin thy enjoyment here.
So much as thy Understanding and Affections are sincerely acted upon God, so much dost thou enjoy him: And this is the happy Work of this Meditation. So that you see, here is somewhat more to be done, then barely to remember and think of Heaven; as Running, and Ringing, and Moving, and such like labors, do not onelyonly stir a hand or a foot, but do strain and exercise the whole body, so doth Meditation the whole soul.
As the Affections of Sinners are set on the world, and turned to Idols, and faln from God, as well as the Understanding; so must the Affections of men be reduced to God, and taken up with him, as well as the Understanding; and as the whole was filled with sin before, so the whole must be filled with God now; as St. Paul saith of Knowledg, and Gifts, and Faith to remove mountains, that if thou have all these without Love,1 Cor. 13.1, 2. Thou art but as sounding Brass, or as a tinkling Cymbal; so I may say of the exercise of these, If in this work of Meditation, thou do exercise Knowledg, and Gifts, and Faith of Miracles, and not exercise Love, and Joy, thou dost nothing, thou playest the childe and not the man, the Sinners part, and not the Saints, for so will Sinners do also: If thy Meditation tends to fill thy Note-Book with notions and good sayings concerning God, and not thy heart with longings after him, and delight in him, for ought I know thy Book is as much a Christian as thou. Mark but Davids description of the blessed man, Psal. 1.3. His delight is in the *Heb. Doctrine.Law of the Lord, and therein doth he meditate day and night.
§. 6.SECT. VI.
4. I Call this Meditation [Set and Solemn] to difference it from that which is Occasional and Cursory. As there is Prayer, which is solemn, (when we set our selves wholly to the duty) and Prayer, which is sudden and short, commonly called, Ejaculations, (when a man in the midst of other business doth send up some brief request to God;) so also there is Meditation solemn, (when we apply our selves onelyonly to that work;) and there is Meditation which is short and cursory, (when in the midst of our business we have some good thoughts of God in our mindes.) And as solemn Prayer is either, First, See, (when a Christian observing it as a standing duty, doth resolvedly practise it in a constant course;) or secondly, Occasional, (when some unusual occasion doth put us upon it at a season extraordinary;) so also Meditation admits of the like distinction. Now, though I would perswade you to that Meditation which is mixt with your common labors in your callings; and to that which special occasions do direct you to; yet these are not the main thing which I here intend: But that you would make it a constant standing duty, as you do by Hearing, and Praying, and Reading the Scripture; and that you would solemnly set your selves about it, and make it for that time your whole work, and intermix other matters no more with it, then you would do with prayer, or other duties. Thus you see, as it is differenced by its act, what kinde of Meditation it is that we speak of, viz. It is the set and solemn acting of all the powers of the Soul.
§. 7.SECT. VII.
THe second part of the Difference is drawn from its object, which is [Rest] or the most blessed estate of man, in his everlasting enjoyment of God in Heaven. Meditation hath a large field to walk in, and hath as many objects to work upon, as there are matters, and lines, and words in the Scripture, as there are known Creatures in the whole Creation, and as there are particular discernable passages of Providence, in the Government of the persons and actions, through the world: But the Meditation that I now direct you in, is onelyonly of the end of all these, and of these as they refer to that end: It is not a walk from Mountains to Valleys, from Sea to Land, from Kingdom to Kingdom, from Planet to Planet: But it is a walk from Mountains and Valleys, to the Holy Mount Zion; from Sea and Land, to the Land of the Living; from the Kingdoms of this world, to the Kingdom of Saints; from Earth to Heaven; from Time to Eternity: It is a walking upon Sun, and Moon, and Stars; it is a walk in the Garden, and Paradise of God▪ It may seem far off; but spirits are quick; whether in the body, or out of the body, their motion is swift: They are not so heavy, or dull, as these earthly lumps; nor so slow of motion, as these clods of flesh. I would not have you cast off your other Meditations; but surely, as Heaven hath the preheminence in perfection, so should it have the preheminence also in our Meditation. That which will make us most happy when we possess it, will make us most joyful when we meditate upon it; especially, when that Meditation is a degree of Possession, if it be such affecting Meditation as I here describe.
You need not here be troubled with the fears of the world, lest studying so much on these high matters, should craze your brains, and make you mad, unless you will go mad with delight, and joy, and that of the purest and most solid kinde: If I set you to meditate as much on Sin and Wrath, and to study nothing but Judgment and Damnation, then you might justly fear such an issue. But its Heaven and not Hell, that I would perswade you to walk in; its Joy and not Sorrow, that I perswade you to exercise. I would urge you to look upon no deformed object, but onelyonly upon the ravishing glory of Saints, and the unspeakable excellencies of the God of glory, and the beams that stream from the face of his Son. Are these such sadding, and madding thoughts? will it distract a man to think of his onelyonly happiness? will it distract the miserable to think of mercy? or the captive and prisoner, to fores… deliverance? or the poor to think of riches and honor approaching? Neither do I perswade your thoughts to matters of great difficulty, or to study thorny and knotty controversies of Heaven, or to search out things beyond your reach: If you should thus set your wit and invention upon the Tenters, you might be quickly distracted or distempered indeed. But it is your Affections, more then your wits and inventions, that must be used in this heavenly employment we speak of: They are Truths which are commonly known and professed, which your souls must draw forth and feed upon. The Resurrection of the body, and the Life everlasting, are Articles of your Creed, and not nicer controversies. Me thinks it should be liker to make a man mad, to think of living in a world of wo, to think of abiding in poverty and sickness, among the rage of wicked men, then to think of living with Christ in bliss: Me thinks, if we be not mad already, it should sooner distract us, to hear the Tempests and roaring Waves, to see the Billows, and Rocks, and Sands, and Gulfs, then to think of arriving safe at Rest. But Wisdom is justified of all her children; Knowledg hath no enemy,Matth 11.19. Luke 7.35. but the ignorant. This heavenly course was never spoke against by any, but those that never either knew it or used it. I more fear the neglect of men that do approve it, then the opposition or Arguments of any against it. Truth looseth more by loose friends, then by sharpest enemies.