The Use and Benefit of Divine Meditation, Sermon 2
The Second SERMON OF The use and benefit of Divine MEDITATION.
HAGGAI 1. 5.
Now therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider your wayes.
NOw follows the manner, how to follow Meditation home to the heart. Here are four things to be practised.
First, weigh and ponder all these things in thy heart. It's said of Mary, she pondred, Luke 2. 19. and kept all these sayings in her heart: verse 51. The words signifie two things: First, she compared these things together, Secondly, she cast them in the scales together. Dost thou know God is mercifull? ponder it with his justice. Dost thou know that Jesus Christ dyed for sinners? ponder it with the true drift of it, how that it is not to let men go on in their sins, but to save them from their sinnes. Dost thou obey God in this or that Commandement? O ponder thy life with the rest, Ponder the path of thy feeet, and let all thy wayes be established. Prov. 4. 26. A man that eats his meat well, forty morsels well, yet one crum going awry throttles him. Thou walkest in these and these Commandements; yea, but there be other Commandments besides these: dost thou walk in them too? thou must, if thou meanest to have thy ways to be established. The Jews had their continers, talents, mindes, sicles, which were greater weights; so they had also their gerahs, and agarahs, smaller measures, and smallest of all: so have thou greater and lesse weights; great ones to ponder the great Commandements, and less to weigh even the least of Gods Commandements: and see thou make true Evangelical weight, or else all will not be well. Suppose a man were to pay a 100 pound of good and lawful money, and in weight, upon forfeiture of all that he hath; if he weigh it not, but the Creditor doth, and finds it light, he is undone. If thou ponderest not thy wayes, God will ponder them: Prov. 5. 21. the word signifies, he weighs and ponders them in a ballance, or scales, he puts the word of his Gospel in the one, and thy goings and obedience in the other. Thou art weighed, and art found too light, thy kingdom is departed from thee, saith God to Belshazzer, Dan. 5. 27. So if thou be light, thou shalt be weighed, and so found, thou shalt lose the Kingdom of heaven for ever.
Secondly, strip sin, and look upon it stark naked: sin covers and disguiseth it self with pleasure, profit, ease, and many a whorish garment, and so inticeth the heart. Even a toad, if she were covered over with gold, those that saw only the gold would pocket it up; if it were naked they would sling it in the kennel. Why doe men love covetousnesse? Why? its hooded with profit. Why carding, dicing, hunting, hawking, tabring, piping, and more than the word alloweth? Why? they are cloathed with pleasure, and delight. Its the duty of Ministers to unmask and uncase sin, and pluck off the vail that covers it from appearing unto men. The not doing of this is the cause that men do not meditate on the vilenesse of their sin, never are humbled, never escape Gods wrath; even because they not discover mens iniquities, Lam. 2. 14. Alas the profit of thy sins shall cease, the pleasure cease, the ease cease, and all these goodly suits shall vanish away, when the soul comes to dye, or to stand before the judgement seat of Christ: sin will remain, but thy silver, and thy gold, where will that be then? thy laughter, and thy merriment, what will become of that then? thy delight will be gone. Meditate therefore with thy self, my sin is now gainful, and easie, and pleasant; but what will my sin become, when I come to lye on my deathbed? what good will it do me, when I have most need of succour? I will never acknowledge him my friend, that will turn against me, when I have most need of him. Alas, I must dye, I must come to judgement, I, I must go either to heaven or to hell: the profit that I get now by my sins, will it bestead me then? the pleasure, the ease that I now find in sin, will it help me there? Alas no, it will then be my break-neck, it will be a Devil unto me: the more I have been delighted with it, the more it will gall me: the more I have gotten by it the more it will damne me: the sin which I most of all loved, will most of all torment me. Eccles. 11. 9. look thus upon sin.
The third means: Dive into thy own soul and heart. There is a tough brawn over thy heart, that it feels not its sins. Now Meditation must look through, and come to the heart at the quick, and cause the truth to dive into the deep places of the soul. When the timber is hard, the workman cannot thrust in the nail with the weight of his hand: no, he must hammer it in. Meditation is the hammering of the heart. It's a pertinent phrase, Jer. 23, 24. Is not my word like a fire (saith the Lord) and like a hammer that breaketh the rocks in pieces? There be two similitudes, first, of a hammer: the Word of God is the hammer; meditation is the hand that taketh this hammer, and knocks the nail into the rocky heart, and makes it enter: Wilt thou not feel? I'le make thee feel (saith Meditation) wilt thou not take notice of thy wretched estate? Meditation comes with blow after blow, and makes us take notice. Secondly, of fire; the word is like fire; Meditation kindles it about the heart. A man be nummed with cold is senselesse; the water frozen with cold, though the least pebble would have sunk in it before, now a great milstone is able to lye upon it, and not sink; the water is able to bear it: so is the heart, be it's sins never so heavy, as the hill of Basan, yet it bears it and feels no weight: but Meditation thawes the heart, and then every sin pincheth and oppresseth. Is not my word like fire? as if he should say, think of it, and muse of it, and meditate of it, and thou shall feel it as a fire. Meditation is the often smiting of the heart with this hammer: so did Ephraim smite upon his thigh, Jer. 31. 19. like a man in a miserable agony, he thumps his own breast, and in a vexation strikes his hand on his thigh. Oh miserable wretch that I am! So did Ephraim, Oh what an unruly Oxe am I? how unwilling am I to bear the yoke of the Lord? Oh, and oh the hardness of my heart! oh that I could tell how to beat thee black and blue! Many men smite their hearts, but they smite them not often enough. When Elishah bad Joash smite upon the ground, he smote thrice, and stayed; The man of God said to him in anger, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times, for then thou hadst smitten Syria, till thou hadst consumed them, whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. 2. King. 13. 19. So men smite their hearts twice, or thrice, or so; but they will not smite their sins dead: it may be they break the head of their sins, but they recover again, and grow strong upon them, as at first. Thou must smite five or six times, yea fifty times five times, till thou hast quite broken the impostume of thy heart. Meditate on the mercies of God, and with them smite it often, and often: Meditate on the justice of God, and with it smite it again, and again: Meditate on the wrath of God, which is as a consuming fire, and with it smite it soundly. Meditate on the truth of the Lord, this threatning and that threatning; this commandement and that commandment this promise and that promise; and with all these smite it to powder.
The fourth means, Anticipate and prevent thine own heart: meditate what thy heart will one day wish, if it be not humbled: and tell thy Soul as much; thou wilt one day wish, Oh that I had been humbled under the reproofs of the Lord! Oh that I had been wise to have understood my own mercy! Cursed be the day that ever I neglected the means of grace; so the Lord brings in a foolish obstinate sinner, cursing and banning his own soul, sobbing and howling at the last. O how have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof! and have not observed the voyce of my Teachers, nor inclined mine care to them that instruct me? Prov. 5. 12, 13. I had Ministers to preach to me, but I would not come at them: or if I did, I cared not for their doctrine, I had friends that advised me well; but woe is me damned wretch! I heeded them not. Thus thou wilt cast the fool into thine own teeth, and fling a thousand curses into thine own face, because of thy madness. I might have learned but I would not; I might have been humbled, but I would not: I was almost in an evill in the midst of the assembly of the congregation, verse 14. I lived where the Saints of God were in whole assemblies, but I mockt them. I hated them, I misliked them for being too precise. I was not ashamed of my security, no not in thy sight. Thus thou wilt cry out one day, if thou wilt not yeeld unto meditation, which must make this as present with thee. Know thou, O my soul, the time of thy visitation is at hand, thou wilt curse thy selfe hereafter, if thou dost not now be moved by Gods mercies, thou shalt never see mercy more: Now be awaked by Gods judgments, or else thou shalt feel them for evermore; now or for ever thou shalt roar for them. Then thou shalt curse thy gains and thy profits that bewitched thee, thou shalt curse thy pleasures and delights that besotted thee, curse thine one heart, and thine own soul, and thine own conscience that have damned thee. Meditation may tell thee, thus it will be with thee, unlesse thou obeyest now. Hear ye me now, Oh yee Children and depart not from the words of my mouth, verse 7. hear the word now, and obey it, let it not depart out thy meditation. Now be humbled with grace, or then thou shalt be humbled with horrour: then thou shalt wish, Oh that I had been ruled! When thou art in hell, then thou shalt meditate, Oh it was good counsel that such and such a Minister gave me; good counsel that such a friend, and such a brother gave me; but wretch that I was, I had not grace to follow it. I had more mind of my pleasures, more mind of my vanities than of grace. Oh if it were to do again, I would not do so for a thousand worlds: but alas, it is now too late. Therefore let Meditation presse this upon thee beforehand.
Now follows the third thing, how to put life to Meditation. Four duties are to be done to this purpose.
1. Let Meditation haunt the heart, let meditation dog thee with the hellish looks of thy sinnes, and follow it with the dreadful vengeance of God, haunt it with promises, haunt it with threatnings, haunt it with mercies, and haunt it with judgements, and haunt it with Commandments, The heart is like the Beaver, when it perceiveth it cannot possibly escape from the Huntsman, it cuts off the Member for which it is hunted, and flings it down, and so escapes (saith Aesop:) So pursue thy heart with its sins, with the hue and cry of Gods mercies; pursue it with the bubbub of Gods judgements; let meditation haunt it, and let thy soul see it shall never be rid of the haunt; at last it will be content to part with its lusts. Let Meditation say, Wilt thou forsake thine own mercies? If thou livest thus and thus, If thou prayest thus and thus, dead heartedly, thou kickest against thine own mercy, wilt thou rush upon the pricks? This mercy thou mayst have, if thou wouldst amend, that vengeance thou shalt have, if thou do not amend: Either cut off thy sins, or else God will cutoff thy soul. Return, O Shulamite, return, return, its the voice of Christ to thee: Let Meditation say, Return, O my soul, return return, and thou mayst be saved; return, or else thou shalt be condemned. Now what was the effect of this haunting meditation? Or ere I was aware, my soul made me like the Chariots of Aminadab. verse 12. That is, my soul musing and meditating on these and these commandments, it so humbled my soul, that it made me yeeld; yea, and made me run as fast as the Chariots of Aminadah, freely and willingly to Christ.
Deal with thy heart as Iunius his father dealt with him: he seeing his Son was Atheistical, he laid a Bible in every room, that his son could look in no room, but behold a Bible haunted him, upbraiding him, Wilt thou not read me, Atheist? Wilt thou not read me? And so at last he read it, and was converted from his Atheisme: So let meditation haunt thy heart, hold forth the commandements, promises, threatnings of the Lord, that thy heart may see them; let meditation haunt thee in thy luke-warmnesse: prayest thou thus luke-warm? This prayer will break thy neck one day. Repentest thou? This luke warm repentance will cause God to spue thee out of his mouth. Hearest thou, speakest thou, thinkest thou? These lukewarm duties wil confound thee ere long, if thou lookest not to it.
Let meditations haunt thee, as they haunted Nehemiah with warnings, ten times (saith the Text) they sent to Nehemiah, they will be upon thee, Nehem. 4. 12. Beware of the danger, the enemy will be upon thee: ten times they warned him, never giving over till Nehemiah looked about him, verse 13. So do thou haunt thine own heart: they will be upon thee, this curse, this wrath, that hardnesse of heart, this security wil be upon thee. Ten times, yea, a thousand times ten times, never give over thine own foul, untill thou hast made it to submit. Indeed there be some, let God send Meditations to haunt them, and follow them, saying, Repent, leave this or that sin? why wilt thou be damn'd with this sin? Oh forsake it, presently they will gagge the mouth of meditation, and of conscience, and strike them stark dead: as Abner, when Azahel would haunt him and follow him, and turn neither to the right hand, nor to the left, but follow him at the heels. Turn aside (saith Abner) but he would not turn aside from following him. Turn aside from me (sayes Abner again) or I will kill thee, but he would not turn aside, he would follow him close: Then he up with his Spear and slew him, 2. Sam. 2. 19. 20, 21, 22, 23. So many deal with the Meditation of conscience, when conscience would dogg them, and weary them out of their sins, they will not, when conscience would haunt them, they will not be haunted therewith; when conscience would follow them up with their desperate wilfulnesse, they gall, and wound, and murder conscience to be quiet. But David haunted his heart, and would have it haunted.
The second duty: Let Meditation trace thy heart, as it should haunt thee, so also let it trace thee in the same steps. So would the Church, Let us search and try our wayes, and turn again unto the Lord: Lam. 3. 40. The word (in the originall, sayes Buxtorf) signifies, track her steps, step by step: this step was in the ditch, tha… in the mire, that step awry: track them all, that we may undergo them all again, and turn unto the Lord. Never pray but let Meditation track thy prayer: this passage was right, that passage was amis. Never keep a Sabbath but let Meditation track thy keeping of it; this duty was sincere, that was rotten: Never do any thing, but let Meditation track it. This thought, this word, this action was warrantable; that was out of the way: track thy heart, as the Lord tracked Eliah, he trackt him in the wildernesse, he trackt him under the juniper tree, he trackt him in the cave; What dost thou here Eliah? go forth: 1. Kings 19. What dost thou here Eliah, go, return. He tract him in the Mount, Go, return, what dost thou here Eliah? this is not a place for thee. So let Meditation wait thee; what dost thou here, O sinner? what dost thou here, drunkard? in thy Cupps, or in thy prophanenesse, what dost thou here? this is not a place for thee, unlesse thou mean to perish. It may be thou art now scar'd out of these sins, and art run into civil honesty, let Meditation still track thee. What dost thou do here, O sinner? Civilitie is not a case fit for thee, unlesse thou wert better, thou shalt be torn in pieces. It may be thou art driven out of thy civility; and art gone further, to the profession of Religion, though it be without the power of it; let meditation still wait thee. What dost thou do here, O sinner? this sorry kind of profession is not a race fit for thee: unlesse thou be godlier than so, thou shalt be devoured with everlasting fire.
Meditation is like the coursing of a Hare in the snow; the Hare fearing to be taken by the dogs, Here she stops, there she leaps, here she interleaps, there she goes backward, and forward, upward and downward, and all to deceive the dogs, that they may not find her; but they goe, smelling, winding and turning, and track her step by step, till they find her: so meditation is the coursing of the soul, the heart hath a thousand fetches, a thousand Meanders and labyrinths, a thousand crosse windings, and compassings, and deceits, and all to puzle Meditation. But Meditation must track the heart, as God dealt with Job, he counted his steps, step by step, Iob 14. 16. Meditation is the souls bloud hound, it will never leave howling the wrath of God; till he hath taken the hearts sin for a prey, Meditation haunts it out of one sin, and it runs into another; Meditation haunts it out of that, and it runnes into a third: Meditation is a good pursevant, it prosecutes the sinner, and attaches him.
Now because the heart is most cunning, and hardest to be trackt by its sent, when the heart hath taken up abundance of good duties, and attained unto sundry graces, these good duties and common graces drown the sent of the hearts wickednesse. As Huntsmen observe, that the hounds cannot well hunt in the Spring, as Theophrastus, and Pollux, and others observe: the sweet odors of the flowers and herbs (sayes Oppian) hinder the hounds from smelling the hare: so it is with Meditation; it is hard for it to track the heart in the green Spring-time of civill honesty and formality. And therefore let Meditation make deligent search, saith he.
The third duty: hale thy heart before God, and let Meditation bring it before his throne, and there powre out thy complaint against it before God, out with all thy villany there, and article against thy self, and bring as many complaints against thy self before heaven, as there be drops in a bucket full of water. So doe the godly: I powred out all my complaints before him (Psal. 102. in the preface) I powred out my complaints as a man powreth out water out of a vessel; generally men are willing to call for mercy, but they are not so willing to bring complaints unto God against themselves: ye shall have them whisper after the Minister, as he is begging for pardon and mercy, but they will not do so, whiles he is complaining of their sins, the hellish and develish abominations of their heart. These are men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith, and shall never have mercy, till they be as forward to complain of their sins, as to be plaintiffs for mercy.
When a man in Meditation meets with a hard matter, that he cannot sufficiently dive into, he breaks it to another: so do thou to God; break all thy heart to God, tell him of thy hardnesse of heart, of the pride of thy heart, of the desperate prophanenesse of thy heart: but take these rules with thee;
First, thy complaint must be full of sorrow Psal. 55.
Secondly, it must be a full complaint of all thy sins, and of all thy lusts; Lam. 2. 18, 19. Poure aut thy heart like water before the face of the Lord. Water runs all out of a vessel, when you turn the mouth downward; never a spoonfull will stay behind. The wicked, will not complain of their sins fully: they make hypocriticall professions. If it be a sin, I am sorry for it; (says one) if it be naught, I cry God mercy; (saith another) when their own consciences tell them it is is a sin, yet they will not complain of it absolutely.
Thirdly, thy complaint must be with aggravation: thou must aggravate thy sins by all the circumstances, that may shew it to be odious, as Peter did: When he thought thereon, he wept, Mark 14. 72. the Originall hath it, he cast all these things one upon another. Wretch that I was, Christ was my master, and yet I denyed him; such a good master, that he called me before any of my fellow-Apostles, and yet I denyed him; I was ready to sink once, he denyed not me: I was to be damned once, he denyed not my soul, and yet I denyed him; he told me of this sin before-hand, that I might take heed of it, and yet I denyed him. I said, I will not commit it, nor forsake him, and yet I denyed him: yea, this very night, no longer ago, did I say and say again, I would not deny him, and yet I denyed him; yea, I said, though all others denyed him, yet would not I; and yet worse than all others, I denyed him with a witness before a maid, before a damsel; nay, more filthy beast that I am, I said I did not know the man; nay more, I sware I did not know him; nay more than all this, I did even curse my selfe with an oath, that I did not know him: nay more, all this evill did I, not above five or six strides from my Lord and Saviour: nay more, even then, when if ever I should have stood for him, I should have done it then, when all the world did forsake him. O wretch that I was, I denyed him I he cast up all these circumstances together, and meditating on them, he went out, and wept bitterly.
Fourthly, thy complaint must be a selfe-condemning complaint: thou must condemn thy self, and lay thy selfe at Hell gates, and set the naked point of Gods vengeance at thy throat. Thus and thus have I lived, damned, cast-away, as I have deserved to be! So did Ezra in the behalfe of the Jews, Ezra 9.
For 1. He fell on his face; he did not bow down on his knees; but like a man astonished, he fell on his knees, ready to fall on the ground in amazement.
2. He spread out his hand unto the Lord, verse 5. as if he should say, here is my heart-blood, Lord here is my breast, Lord we deserve thou shouldst stab us with thy wrath.
3. He blushes to looke Heaven in the face, verse 6. so vexed to think on the sins of his people, that he is even confounded to beg mercy.
4. He is (as it were) dumb and speechlesse before God: And now our God, what shall we say after all this? for we hauehave forsaken thy commandements, verse 10. Shall I excuse the matter? alas! it is inexcusable. What shall we say after all this? Shall we call for thy patience? Wee had it, and yet were little the better. Shall we call for mercy, Why? we had it, and yet our stubborn hearts would not come down; I know not what to say for our selves: for we have sinned against thee.
5. He declares Gods truth, that he had warned them by his Prophets, (vers. 11, 12.) but no warning can better us.
6. He shews how God had punished them, yet they would not be humbled: for all that God had brought upon them lesse evils than they deserved, and wrought deliverance for them, wich they could not have expected; What shall we say, should we for all this break thy commandements? verse 13, 14. What can we expect but hell and confusion?
7. He is sensible of Gods Judgements and righteousnesse: O Lord thou art righteous: as if he should say, How canst thou spare us for this sinne? How can it stand with thy righteousnesse? How is it that such hell-hounds as we are, should live above ground, when thou art so righteous a God? It is a wonder that the earth opens not her mouth for to swallow us up quick: for, O Lord thou art righteous.
8. He layes down his soul, and all the peoples souls at Gods feet; as if he should say, here we be, thou maist damn us if thou wilt; Behold we are all here before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee, because of this, verse 15. Behold here are we: rebels we are: here are our heads, and our throats before thee, if now thou shouldst take us from our knees unto hell, and from our prayers unto damnation, we cannot ask thee, why thou doest so: Oh it's mercy, it's mercy indeed, that we have been spared. Thus Meditation must bring our hearts before God, and there complain against them before heaven.
Meditation should deal with the heart, as the Father did with his possessed child, who carried him to Christ, saying, Master my child is possessed with a Devill, even a dumb spirit, and I spake to thy Disciples that they should cast him out, but they could not, Mark 9. 18. Bring him to me (saith Christ) verse 19. How long is this agoe since this came to him? Of a child (saith the Father) and often it hath cast him into the fire, and often into the water to destroy him; but if thou canst do any thing (as certainly thou canst do all things) have compassion on us, and help us, verse 22. And then Christ helpt him. So let Meditation drive thy heart to God, saying; Lord here is my heart (I beleeve) possest with a Devil; for it is a most abominable sinful heart: I brought my heart to thy Ministers to cure it, to Sermons, to Prayers, to all other good duties, but they could not help me, my heart is a devillish heart, still my heart is wicked, and rebellious still, the Devil, Oh, the Devil is in it still! Oh, how he tempts me! he holds me, he casts me into the fire of this lust, and into the water of everflowing iniquity. Have thou compassion, come and help me, for my heart is miserably vexed with Satan; when I pray, the Devil stuffs me with dead thoughts, and drousie desires, the Devil fils me with wandring Imaginations, and I know not what; when I hear the Word, the Devil makes me to rise up against it, or forget it, or not obey it; when the Sabbath is come, the devil sets me on thinking my own thoughts, and speaking my own words; when a Sacrament is come, the Devil hinders me in selfe-examination, The Devil disappoints me of my preparation: Oh have thou compassion on me,
The fourth duty; Let Meditation, when it hath haled thy heart before God, there cast thee down before him: when Meditation hath searched out thy case, and made it appear how wofull it is, then let it lay thee along before God, with What shall I do to be saved? So it did with them in Acts 2. 27. as if they should say (saith Chrysostome) we have not one jot of hope to find mercy, so long as we live as we doe. What shall we do? Say what thou wilt, our eares are ready to hear it; command what thou wilt, our soules, what ever it be, are willing to do it: bid us suffer whatsoever thou pleasest, tell us what it is, and we will endure it. They did not say (notes Chrysostome) How shall we be saved, as wicked men do, they desire to be saved, but their main care is not to see what they must do, they are told what they must do, and yet refuse to do it; but thy chief study must be, to cast thy self down before God with the good Jaylor, Sirs, What shall I do to be saved? Acts 16. 30. First, What must I do? and then to be saved. First thy care must be what to do to get out of thy sins, how to be rid of thy lusts, and then to be saved; as if he should say, I see I am at a damned passe, and therefore I was a making away my self, the fire of hell did slay my soul: but now is there hope of salvation? is there indeed? Oh tel me, I am willing to do any thing, what must I do? Keep nothing back of all the will of the Lord; be it punishment to suffer, tell me of it, I am ready to bear it; be it precepts for to do, though never so irke some, O let me know it, and I would not refuse it. What must I do to be saved? When the heart is thus humbled upon sound Meditation, i'ts willing to do or suffer any thing. Jonah is willing to be cast into the sea, being humbled, Jonah 1. 2. Here I am, Lord deal with me as thou wilt.
The first Motive. Is it not a folly not to meditate? Should a man walk Motive 1 on in his course, and not meditate whither it will tend? When he falls into mischief, what will he say? I never thought on this before, I never considered that this would be the end. Now it is the part of a fool to say, I never thought, as the Latine proverb hath it; when the Steed is stollen, if he should then shut the Stable door, what wouldest thou say, He should have thought of that before. The rich man in the Gospel had these meditations in his heart; he thought within himself, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? He said in his heart, This will I do, I will pull down my barns and build greater; and will say to my soul, Soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, eat, drink, and be merry; Luke 12. 17, 18, 19, 20. Thou fool (said God) this night shall thy soul be required of thee; then whose shall these things be that thou hast provided? God said thus unto him: not as if God spake thus familiarly unto him (saith Theophylact) but it is a parable, and God sayes so in his word, Thou fool, this night shall they require thy soul of thee. In this night of thy blindnesse, in this night of thy security, shall they require it: he doth not say, I will require thy soul of thee, but they: he doth not say who, but they, the Devils in hell. God knows who shall come, thou shalt dye, and they shall fetch away thy soul to hell: they shall require it. A goldy mans soul is not required, but rather he requires God to take away his soul: he is willing to dye, that he may be with Christ: but a wicked mans soul is required of him: he would willingly not dye, but that his soul is required of him, and he must dye. Doubtlesse the rich fool now thought with himself, I never thought that I should have dyed so soon, and therefore now he calls (it may be) to his Lord, Lord, and cryes God mercy. But what will they say to him? Thou shouldest have thought on this before.
The wise man shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the promotion of fools, Prov. 3. 3. The wise and prudent, those that truely meditate of things beforehand, shall have glory; but fools that hope to be promoted to to glory and salvation, shame and confusion of face shall be all their promotion, and when they come thereto, besides their expectation; what will they say? We never thought it would be thus with us before; but fools as we were, we thought to be promoted to heaven: like Haman, when King Ahashuerus said unto him, What shall be done to the man whom the King will honour? O thus and thus (saith Haman) for he thought, I am the man whom the King intendeth to honour, Esther 6. 6. but when Haman was presently after to be hanged on a gallowes, he might rightly say, I never thought of this before. So, what will be done to the man whom the Lord will honour? Thus and thus sayest thou, he shall have mercies, blessings, heaven: I, for thou thinkest I am the man that God intendeth thus to honour; but when thou art come to hell, what wilt thou say then? I never thought of this before, that so it would be.
The second Motive is, Thou wouldest be loth to have the brand of a Reprobate: Motive 2 Not to meditate, is that brand; The wicked through the pride of his countenance, will not seeek after God; neither is God in all his thoughts, Psal. 10. 4. He scorns to be so poring upon Bibles, to be so wracking his mind with his sins; He hath said in his heart, God will not require it, vers. 13. God requires no such scrupulosity nor strictnesse.
The third Motive is, Thou wouldest be loth to rob God of his honour, and the maine part of his service, which is meditation. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, Matth. 22. 38. How can this be true of them (saith Chrysostome) who become vain in their imaginations? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, and mind: And so do I (saist thou:) So dost thou? What, and not love God with all that is in thy heart? Thy thoughts are in thy heart, thy meditations are in thy mind; If thy thoughts then, and meditation be not of God, thou dost not love God with all thy heart: David did not onelyonly pray, that the words of his mouth, but also that the thoughts of his heart should be ever acceptable to the Lord, Psal 19. 14. not onelyonly that he might be full of heavenly communication in his mouth, but also of holy meditation in his heart. Behold (saith he) thou rquirest truth in the inward parts, Psal. 51. 5. And meditation is one of the duties of truth in the inward parts.
The fourth Motive: Thou wouldest be loth that all the worship thou givest to God, should be abominable: so it will be without meditation; meditation before it, meditation after it.
First, Thou must meditate before thou goest about a duty of Gods worship: consider before thou hear the word of God, meditate what thou art going about, Hearken O daughter, and consider, incline thine ear, Psal. 45. 10. First, consider and meditate, and then incline thine eare. This is part of those words often in Scripture, Be ready, be ready: Be ready and come up, saith God, Exod. 34. 2. Be ready against the third day, Exod. 29. Gather your selves together, Zep. 2. 1. that is, Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel, Amos 4. 12.
Secondly meditate after the duty. When men part with men, they use to give one another a farewell, and not bluntly deliver their mind one to another, and so turn their backs one upon another. Lysias could not write a letter to Felix, and break up abruprly, but he gave him a farewel Acts 23. 30. Neither may a man, when a duty is done, go away bluntly from God, but give him a farewell by holy meditation. It's an unseemly kicking of a duty, as most men do when they are come to the end of their prayers, to whom with the Father and holy Spirit be ascribed all praise and glory, Amen; Come is dinner ready? or what news do you hear? This is unmannerlinesse towards the ordinances of God. A man that hath been at a good dinner, will sit a while at it, or walk a while, he will not presently run to his work, that the meat may digest the better: So when thou hast been at Gods dainties, sit after it a while, pawsing and meditating thereof, as often as thou well mayest, let it have its working a while.
What is the reason thou hast so many by-thoughts in prayer? Because thou dost not meditate before hand and after. Hence it is, that thine eyes are not directed to the duty, but like a blind Archer thou shootest but by aim; when the good Archer shoots, he must have the white in his eye still, which he must levell at. My voice shalt thou hear betimes in the morning, in the morning will I direct my prayer to thee, and will look up, Ps. 5. 3. How came that? you may look on his meditations, verse 1. By meditation he was wont to direct and levell his prayers to God. Wicked men know that God is before them, as a blind man may learn the Butt is before him, but they see not God before them to direct their prayers unto him: they pray at rovers. Thou must use then to meditate of God, that thy prayers may be directed: if thou prayest not thus, thy prayers are like them in the Prophet, who drew near to God with their lips, but their hearts were far from him, like an arrow beside the Butt, or far from the mark, either wide or short. They have not cryed unto me with their hearts, when they howled upon their beds, Hosea 7. 14. They prayed, but they praied not to me; (saith the Lord) as the white may say of a bungling Archer, he shoots, but not at me when he shot, he shot another way. God counts all such prayers no better than howling of Dragons and wilde beasts; (so the word signifies saith Scindler) God would as lief, and rather to, that a Dog, or a Wolf, or Dragon should howl in his hearing, than hear such a prayer as this is. The onelyonly way therefore to perform duties of Gods worship purely, is chiefly meditation, meditation, meditation.
End of the text · William Fenner, The Use and Benefit of Divine Meditation (1657)