Chapter 10. Rules Concerning Spiritual Meditation.
CHAPTER 10. RULES CONCERNING SPIRITUAL
MEDITATION.
Sundry things tendered to those who complain that they don't know how, they are not able to abide in holy thoughts of God and spiritual or heavenly things, for their relief, instruction, and direction — Rules concerning stated spiritual meditation.
SOME will say, indeed, on many occasions they do say, that there is nothing in all their duty towards God, in which they are more at a loss than they are in this one of fixing or exercising their thoughts or meditations on heavenly or spiritual things. They acknowledge it is a duty; they see an excellency in it, with inexpressible usefulness. But although they often try and attempt it, they cannot attain to any thing but what makes them ashamed both of it and themselves. Their minds, they find, are unsteady, apt to rove and wander, or to entertain other things, and not abide on the object which they design their meditation towards. Their abilities are small, their invention barren, their memories frail, and their judgments (to dispose of things into a right order) are weak and unable. They know not what to think on, for the most part; and when they fix on anything, they are immediately at a loss as to any progress, and so they give up.
Hence other thoughts, or thoughts of other things, take advantage to impose themselves on them; what began in spiritual meditation, ends in carnal vanity. On these considerations, they are oftentimes discouraged to enter on the duty; oftentimes they give it up as soon as it is begun; and they are glad if they come away without being losers by their endeavors, which often befalls them. With respect to other duties, it is not so with them. For those who are really concerned in these things, to whom their want and defect is a burden, who mourn under it, and desire to be freed from it, or refreshed in their conflict with it, I will offer the things that ensue:
First, That sense of the vanity of our minds which this consideration will give us if duly attended to, ought to greatly humble and abase our souls. Why is it this way with us, that we cannot abide in thoughts and meditations of things spiritual and heavenly? Is it because they are things that we have no great concern in? It may be that they are worthless and unprofitable things to us, so that it is to no purpose to spend our thoughts about them. The truth
is, they alone are worthy, useful, and desirable; all other things in comparison to them are but "loss and dung." Phi 3.8
Or is it because the faculties and powers of our souls were not originally suited to contemplate and delight in them? This also is otherwise; they were all given to us, all created by God for this very end, all fitted with inclinations and power to abide with God in all things, without aversion or weariness. Nothing was so natural, easy, and pleasant to our souls, as steadiness in the contemplation of God and his works. The cause of all this evil, therefore, lies at our own door. All this, therefore, and all other evils, came upon us by the entrance of sin. And therefore Solomon, in his inquiry after all the causes and effects of vanity, brings it under this head: "Lo, this only have I found, that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions," Ecc 7.29. For hereby our minds, that were created in a state of blessed adherence to God, were wholly turned away from him; and not only so, but they were filled with enmity against Him.
In this state, the vanity that is prevalent in them, is both their sin and their punishment: their sin in a perpetual inclination to things that are vain, foolish, sensual, and wicked — so the apostle describes it at large in Eph 4.17-19, Tit 3.3; and their punishment, in that, being turned away from the chief good, in which alone rest is to be found, they are filled with darkness, confusion, and disquietude, being "like the troubled sea that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." Isa 57.20
By grace our minds are renewed — that is, they are changed and delivered from this frame; but only partially. The principle of vanity is no longer predominant in us, to alienate us from the life of God, or to keep us in enmity against him. Those who are so renewed do not "walk in the vanity of their minds," as others do, Eph 4.17. They go up and down, in all their ways and occasions, with a stream of vain thoughts in their minds. But the remainders of it are effectually operative in us, in all the actings of our minds towards God, affecting them with uncertainty and instability. It is like someone who has received a great wound in any principal part of his body. Though it may be so cured that death won't immediately ensue from it, yet it may make him weak and lame all his days, and hinder him in the exercise of all the powers of life. The vanity of our minds is so cured as to deliver us from spiritual death; yet such a wound, such a
weakness remains, that it weakens and hinders us in all the operations of spiritual life. Hence, those who have made any progress in grace, are sensible of their vanity as the greatest burden of their souls, and they groan after such a complete renovation of their minds that they may thereby be perfectly freed from it. This is what they principally regard in that complaining desire of Rom 7.24,
"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?" Yes, they groan under a sense of it every day; nor is anything such a trouble to them, observing how it defeats them in their designs to contemplate heavenly things; how it frustrates their best resolutions to abide in the spiritual actings of faith and love; how they are imposed on by it with thoughts of things which, either in themselves or in their consequences, they most abhor. Nothing are they so afraid of, nothing is so grievous and burdensome to them, nothing do they more groan for deliverance from.
When there is war anyplace, it behoves those who are concerned, to have an eye and regard to all their enemies and their attempts against them. But if they are vigilant and diligent in their opposition to those who are outside, who visibly contend with them, and in the meantime neglect those who act traitorously within, among themselves — betraying their counsels and weakening their strength
— they will undoubtedly be ruined. Wise men first take care of what is within, knowing that if they are betrayed there, all they do against their open enemies is to no purpose. In the warfare in which we are engaged, we have enemies of all sorts that openly and visibly, in various temptations, fight against our souls. It is our duty to watch against these, to conflict with them, and to seek a conquest over them. And it is this internal vanity of mind that endeavors in all things to betray us, to weaken us in all our graces, or to hinder their due operation, and to open the doors of our hearts to our cursed enemies. If our principal endeavor isn't to discover, suppress, and destroy this traitor, we won't succeed in our spiritual warfare.
Therefore, this being the original cause of all that disability of mind (as to our steadiness in holy thoughts and meditations) which you complain of when you're affected with it — turn to consider what it proceeds from. Labor to be humbled greatly, and to walk humbly, under a sense of the remainders of this vanity of mind, that some wholesome fruit may be taken from this bitter root, and meat may
come out of this eater. If you reflect on this cause of it, when you cannot abide in holy thoughts of God and your relation to Him — to your further humiliation and self-abasement — then your good design and purpose are not lost. Say to yourself, "I began to think of God, of his love and grace in Christ Jesus, of my duty towards him; and now, where do I find myself in a few minutes? I have gotten to the ends of the earth, into useless and earthly things, or I am at such a loss that I have no mind to proceed in the work in which I was engaged. 'O wretched man that I am!' what a cursed enemy have I within me! I am ashamed of myself, weary of myself, I loathe myself.
'Who shall deliver me from this body of death?'" Such thoughts may be as useful to you as those which you first designed.
It's true, we can never be freed absolutely from all the effects of this vanity and instability of mind in this world. Unchangeable clinging to God always, in all the powers and affections of our minds, is reserved for heaven. Yet great degrees may be attained in the conquest and expulsion of it, such as I fear few have experienced, yet all ought to labor for it. If we apply ourselves as we should to the increase of spiritual light and grace; if we labor diligently to abide and abound in thoughts of spiritual things, and do it out of love for them and delight in them; if we watch against the entertaining and approving those thoughts and things in our minds by which this vain frame is pleased and confirmed — there is, even if not an absolute perfection, yet a blessed degree of heavenly mindedness to be attained. And in that, is the nearest approach to glory that we are capable of in this world. If a man cannot attain an athletic constitution of health, or a strength like that of Samson, yet if he is wise, he won't omit the use of those means which may make him useful in the ordinary duties of life. And although we cannot attain perfection in this matter — which it is our duty to continually press after — yet, if we are wise, we will endeavor for such a cure of this spiritual distemper, that we may be able to discharge all the duties of the life of God. But if men feed the vanity of their own minds in all other things; if they permit them to rove continually after things that are foolish, sensual, and earthly; if they willfully supply them with objects to that end, and don't labor by all means to mortify this evil frame — then in vain they will desire or expect to bring them at any time, on any occasion, to be steady in the thoughts of heavenly
things. If it is thus with any, as it is feared to be with many, it is their duty to mind the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in the first place,
"Make the tree good, and the fruit will be good" — and not before. Mat 12.33 When the power of sanctifying grace has made the mind habitually spiritual and heavenly, thoughts of such things will be natural to it, and accompanied with delight. But they will not be so until the God of peace has sanctified us in our whole spirit, soul, and body, by which we may be preserved blameless to the coming of Jesus Christ. 1The 5.23
Secondly, always be sensible of your own insufficiency to raise in your mind thoughts of things spiritual and heavenly, or to manage them in a due manner. But in this case, men are apt to suppose that as they may, so they can think of what they please — thoughts are their own (they think), and therefore, of whatever sort they wish, they need no assistance for them. In truth, they cannot think as they should; they can do nothing at all; and nothing will convince them of their folly as to spiritual things, until they are burdened with an experience to the contrary. But the advice given is expressly laid down by the apostle, in the instance of himself: 2Cor 3.5, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."
He speaks principally of ministers of the gospel, and of those who were most eminently furnished with spiritual gifts and graces, as he declares in verse 6. And if it is so with them, and with respect to the work and duties of their calling, then how much more is it so with others who don't have their graces or their office! Therefore, if men without regard to the present actual grace of God and the supplies of his Spirit, suppose that they can of themselves exercise their minds in spiritual thoughts — and so they only fret at themselves when they fall into disappointment, not knowing what is the matter with them
— they will live in a lifeless, barren frame all their days.
By the strength of their natural abilities, men may frame thoughts of God and heavenly things in their minds, according to the knowledge they have of them. They may methodize them by rules of art, and express them elegantly to others. But even while they do so, they may be far from being spiritually minded; for there may be in their thoughts no actings of faith, love, or holy delight in God, or any grace
at all. But these alone are the things which we inquire after; only those in which the graces of the Spirit are in their proper exercise.
With respect to them, we have no sufficiency in ourselves; all our sufficiency must be of God. Among persons of light and knowledge, there is no truth more generally granted in the notion of it than this: that of ourselves we can do nothing, and none are more neglected in daily practice. Men profess they can do nothing of themselves, and yet they go about their duties as if they could do all things.
Thirdly, Remember that I have not at present treated solemn stated meditation, concerning which other rules and instructions should be given. By solemn or stated meditation, I mean thoughts about some spiritual and divine subject, with the fixing, forcing, and ordering of our thoughts about it, having a design to affect our own hearts and souls with the matter of it, or the things contained in it. By this design, meditation is distinguished from the study of the Word, in which our principal aim is to learn the truth, or to declare it to others. And it is also distinguished from prayer, in which God himself is the immediate object. But in meditation, it is affecting our own hearts and minds with love, delight, and humiliation. At present
I have only shown what it means to be spiritually minded; and in this instance, it is about our thoughts as they proceed from the habitual frame of our hearts and affections, or of what sort the constant course of our thoughts ought to be with respect to all the occasions of the life of God. Persons may be ready for this, who are yet unskilled in and disabled for stated meditation. For this, what is required is such an exercise of our natural faculties and abilities as some, through their weakness and ignorance, are incapable of. But as to what we have insisted on up to here, it is attainable by any in whom the Spirit of faith and love abides; for it is but the frequent actings of these that I intend. Therefore, do your heart and affections lead you to many thoughts of God and spiritual things? Do they spring up in you as water in a well of living waters? Are you ready on all occasions to entertain such thoughts, and to be conversant with them as opportunity offers itself? Do you labor to have in a readiness, what is useful for you with respect to temptations and duties? Is God in Christ, and are the things of the gospel, the ordinary retreat of your soul? — even if you are not able to carry on an orderly, stated meditation in your mind, you may yet be spiritually minded.
A man may not have a capacity and ability to carry on a great trade of merchandise in the world. The knowledge of all sorts of commodities and seasons of the world and its nations, with those contrivances and accounts which belong to such trade, may be above his comprehension, and he may quickly ruin himself in undertaking such an employment. Yet the abilities of this man may serve him well enough to carry on a retail trade in a private shop, in which perhaps he may thrive and get as good an estate as any whose greater capacities lead them to larger and more hazardous employments. So it may be with some in this case. The natural faculties of their minds are not sufficient to enable them for stated meditation; they cannot arrange things by that method and order which it requires, nor frame the conceptions of their minds into significant and expressive words.
And yet, as to frequency of thoughts of God, and a disposition of mind for it, they may thrive and be skillful beyond most others of greater natural abilities. However, because even stated meditation is a necessary duty, indeed, the principal way by which our spiritual thoughts profitably act themselves, I will regard it in the following direction. Wherefore — Fourthly, Whatever principle of grace we have in our minds, we cannot attain a ready exercise of it, in a way of spiritual meditation or otherwise, without great diligence, or great difficulty.
It was shown at the entrance of this discourse, that there is a difference in this grace, between the essence, substance, or reality of it — which we would not exclude men from, under many failings or infirmities — and the useful degrees of it, in which it has its principal exercise. There is a difference in natural life and its actings in a weak, diseased, sickly body, and in that which is of a good constitution, and in a vigorous health. Supposing the first sort, the reality of this grace is wrought in us or implanted in our minds by the Holy Ghost, as a principal part of that new nature which is the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus for good works. And yet, the growth and improvement of it, as with all other graces, requires our own diligent care, watchfulness, and spiritual striving in all holy duties. Unless the most fruitful ground is manured, it will not bring forth a useful crop.
Let no one think that this frame of a spiritual mind — in which there is a disposition to and a readiness for all holy thoughts of God, of Christ, of spiritual and heavenly things, at all times and on all
occasions — will befall him and continue with him, he knows not how. It is as likely for a poor man to expect to be rich in this world without industry, or for a weak man to be strong and healthy without food and exercise, as to be spiritually minded without an earnest endeavor after it. It may be asked what is requisite to it; and we may name some of those things without which such a holy frame will not be attained. Such as — 1. A continual watch is to be kept in and on the soul against the incursions of vain thoughts and imaginations, especially in those seasons in which they are apt to obtain advantage. If they are permitted to make an inroad into the mind, if we accustom ourselves to entertain them, if they habitually lodge within, then in vain we may hope or desire to be spiritually minded. In this consists a principal part of that duty which our Savior so frequently, so emphatically charges on us all; namely, to "watch," Mar 13.37. Unless we keep a strict watch in this, we will be betrayed into the hands of our spiritual enemies; for all such thoughts are but making provision for the flesh, to fulfill its desires in its lusts, however disappointed they may be as to actual sin. This is the substance of the advice given to us in this charge in Pro 4.23, "Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."
2. Careful avoidance of all societies and businesses of this life which are apt, under various pretenses, to draw and seduce the mind to an earthly or sensual frame. If men venture on those things which they have found by experience, or may find by their observation, that they seduce and draw their minds away from a heavenly frame to that which is contrary to it, and will not watch to avoid them, they will be filled with the fruit of their own ways. Indeed, the common converse of professors among themselves and others — walking, talking, and behaving themselves like other men, being as full of the world as the world is of itself — has lost the grace of being spiritually minded within, and has stained the glory of profession without. The rule observed by David will manifest how careful we ought to be in this:
Psa 39.1-3, "I said, I will take heed to my ways, so that I don't sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me. I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within
me; while I was musing the fire burned: then spoke I with my tongue."
— this place was mentioned before [chap. 9].
3. A holy constraint put on the mind to abide in the duty of spiritual thoughts and meditations, pressing it continually to consider their necessity and usefulness. The mind will be apt of itself to step aside from purely spiritual duties, through the mixture of the flesh abiding in it. The more inward and purely spiritual any duty is, which has no outward advantages, the more prone the mind will be to decline from it. It will be more prone to decline from private prayer than public, and more from meditation than prayer. And other things will be apt to draw it aside, by objects without, and various stirrings of the affections within. A holy constraint is to be put upon it, with an instant rejection of whatever rises up to divert or disturb it.
Therefore, we are to call upon all constraining motives, such as the consideration of the love of Christ, 2Cor 5.14,66 to keep the mind steady toward its duty.
4. Diligent use of means to furnish the soul with that light and knowledge of heavenly things which may administer continual matter of holy thoughts and meditations from within ourselves. This has been largely spoken to before. The lack of it is what keeps many from the least proficiency in these duties. It is like a man who has some skill or ability for a trade; if he has no materials to work with, he must sit still and let his trade alone. So it is with men regarding the work of holy meditation. Whatever the ability of their natural faculties, their creativity or memories, if they're not furnished with knowledge of things spiritual and heavenly, which are the subjectmatter of such meditations, they must let their work alone. Hence the apostle prays for the Colossians, that "the word of Christ might dwell in them richly in all wisdom," Col 3.16; that is, that they might abound in the knowledge of the mind of Christ, without which we will be unfit for this duty.
5. Unwearied in our conflict with Satan, who, by various artifices and the injection of fiery darts, labors continually to divert us from these duties. He is seldom or never lacking on such occasions. The one who is furnished in any measure with spiritual wisdom and understanding, may find Satan more sensibly at work in his craft and
opposition with respect to this duty, than any other way. When we stand thus before the Lord, Satan is always at our right hand to resist us; and oftentimes his strength is great. Hence, as observed earlier, men often design to really exercise themselves in holy thoughts, but end up in vain imaginations; they take up with trifles rather than continue in this duty. Steadiness in the resistance of Satan on these occasions, is one great part of our spiritual warfare. And we may know that he is at work, by his engines and methods — for they consist in his suggestions of vain, foolish, or corrupt imaginations.
When they begin to rise in our minds at those times in which we would engage in spiritual meditation, we may know assuredly where they come from.
6. Continual watchful care that no root of bitterness springs up to defile us, that no lust or corruption is predominant in us. When it is so, if persons, in compliance with their convictions, endeavor sometimes to be exercised in these duties, they will labor in the very fire, where all their endeavors will be immediately consumed. 67
7. Mortification to the world in our affections and desires, with moderation in our endeavors for the things needed from it,68 are also necessary — indeed, to such a degree that without these, no one can in any sense be said to be spiritually minded. For otherwise our affections cannot be so preserved under the power of grace, that spiritual things may be always savory to us.
Some may say, perhaps, that if all these things are required for it, it will consume a man's whole life and time to be spiritually minded.
They hope to attain it at a lower cost, and not forego all the other advantages and savors of life, which a strict observation of these things would require.
I answer that although it may prove a hard saying to some, I must say it. My heart would reproach me if I didn't say that, if the principal part of our time is not spent about these things, then whatever we may suppose, we indeed have neither life nor peace. The first fruits of all were to be offered to God; and in sacrifices, He required the blood and the fat of the inwards. If the best is not His, he will have nothing. So it is with our time. Tell me, I ask you, how you can better spend your time and your lives, or to what better
purpose, and I will say, "Go and prosper." I am sure some spend so much of their time, on so much worse, that it is a shame to see it.
Do you think you came into this world to spend your whole time and strength in your employments, your trades, your pleasures, to the satisfaction of the "wills of the flesh and of the mind?" Eph 2.3 Do you have time enough to eat, to drink, to sleep, and to talk unprofitably, it may be corruptly, in all sorts of unnecessary societies, but don't have enough to live to God in the very essentials of that life which consists in these things? Alas! you came into the world under this law: "It is appointed to men once to die, and after this the judgment,"
Heb 9.27; and the end for which your life is granted to you here, is that you may be prepared for that judgment. If this is neglected, if the principal part of your time is not improved with respect to this end, you will fall under the sentence of it unto eternity.
But men are apt to mistake in this matter. They may think these things tend to take them away from their lawful employments and recreations, which they are generally afraid of; they are unwilling to purchase any frame of mind at so dear a cost. They may suppose that to have men be spiritually minded, we would make them mopes,69 and disregard all the lawful occasions of life. But let no one be mistaken — I am not proposing a design that will be easily, or maybe, honestly defeated. Men are able to defend themselves in their callings and enjoyments, and to satisfy their consciences against any persuasions to the contrary. Yet there is a season in which we are obliged to part with all we have, and to surrender ourselves wholly to follow Christ in all things, Mat 19.21.70 If we neglect or refuse it in that season, it is an evidence that we are hypocrites. And there was a time when superstition had so much power on the minds of men, that multitudes were persuaded to forsake, to give up, all their interest in relations, callings, goods, possessions, and to take up tedious pilgrimages, even hard service in war, to comply with that superstition. It is not to the glory of our profession that we have so few instances of men parting with all, and giving themselves up to heavenly retirement. But I am at present proposing no such design.
My aim is not to take men away from their lawful earthly employments, but to bring spiritual affections and thoughts into the management of them all. The things mentioned will deprive you of no time that you can lay claim to, but will sanctify it all.
I confess that someone must be a great expert in spirituality if he dares venture on an absolute retirement. He must be well satisfied that he is not called to any usefulness among men that is inconsistent with it; though it may prove a disadvantage to them. Yet this too is attainable if other circumstances concur. Men under the due exercise of grace and its improvement, may attain to that fixedness in heavenly mindedness, to that unconcern in all things here below, as to give themselves up entirely and continually to heavenly meditation, to a blessed advancement of all grace, and a near approach to glory. I would hope it was so with many of those in ancient times who renounced the world, with all circumstances of relations, state, inheritances, and turned to retirement in the wilderness, to abide always in divine contemplation.71 But afterward, multitudes whose minds were not prepared by a real growth in grace and mortification to the world, as these others were, turned (under the same pretenses) to a monastic retirement. They turned to the devil, the world, sensual lusts, superstition, and all manner of evils; they pursued them, found them, and possessed them, to the unspeakable damage and scandal of religion.
This is not what I invite the common sort of believers to. Let whose who are able and free, receive it. Most Christians have lawful callings, employments, and businesses which ordinarily they ought to abide in. That they too may live to God in their circumstances, they may do well to consider two things:
(1.) Industry in men's callings is very commendable in itself. If nothing else, it has an advantage in this: that it is a means to preserve men from those excesses in lust and riot which otherwise they are apt to run into. And if you consider the two sorts of men into which most men are distributed — namely, those who are industrious in their affairs, and those who spend their time, if able, in idleness and pleasure; the former sort are far more amiable and desirable. Even so, industry is capable of being greatly abused.
Earthly mindedness, covetousness, devouring holy things as to the times and seasons of duty, uselessness, and similar pernicious vices, invade and possess the minds of men. There is no lawful calling that absolutely excludes this grace of being spiritually minded in those who are engaged in it, nor in any calling that includes it. Men may be in the least of lawful callings and be
spiritually minded; and men may be in the best and highest callings, and not be so.
Consider the calling of the ministry: Its work and duty calls on those who are employed in it, to have their minds and thoughts conversant about spiritual and heavenly things. They are to study them, meditate on them, commit them to memory, and speak them to others. It will be said, "Surely such men must be spiritually minded." If they go no further than what is mentioned, I say they must be so, in the same way that printers must be learned, who are continually conversant about letters. A man may engage himself in these things with great industry, and yet his mind be most remote from being spiritual. The event declares that it may be so. And the reasons for it are manifest. It requires as much if not more watchfulness, more care, and more humility, for a minister to be spiritually minded in the discharge of his calling, than for any other sort of men in theirs, and for other reasons. The commonness of the exercise of such thoughts, with their design upon others in their expression, will reduce their power and efficacy. He will have little benefit by his own ministry, if he does not in the first place, endeavor to experience in his own heart, the power of the truths which he teaches others. There is evidently as great a failing in this among us ministers, as among any other sort of Christians, as every occasion of trial demonstrates.
(2.) Industry in any honest calling is allowable; yet, unless men labor to be spiritually minded in the exercise of that industry, they have neither life nor peace. All the things mentioned before are necessary; I don't know how any of them can be abated — even more is required than is expressed in them. If you burn this scroll, another must be written, and many like things must be added to it.
The objection from the expense of time in observing them has no force; for a man may do as much work while he is spiritually minded as he does while he is carnal. Spiritual thoughts will no more hinder you in your callings than those which are vain and earthly, which all sorts of men find leisure for in the midst of their employments. If you have filled a vessel with chaff, you may still pour a great deal of water into it, which will be contained in the same space and vessel. If it is necessary that you take much of the
chaff of the world into your minds, yet they are capable of such measures of grace as will preserve them sincere unto God.
Fifthly, This frame will never be preserved, nor the duties mentioned ever be performed in a due manner, unless we dedicate some part of our time particularly to them. I speak only to those whom I suppose daily set apart some portion of time to holy duties, such as prayer and reading the word, and they find by experience that it succeeds well with them. For the most part, if they lose their seasons, they lose their duties. For some complain that the urgency of business and the multitude of tasks drive them first from the fixed times of their duties, and then has brought them into a course of neglecting the duty itself. That's why it is our wisdom to consistently set apart some part of our time to exercise our thoughts about spiritual things, in the way of meditation. And I will close this discourse with some directions in this particular, to those who complain about their disability to discharge this duty:
1. Choose and separate a fit time or season, free from other occasions and diversions. Because it is our duty to redeem time with respect to our holy duties, such a time may be more useful the more the purchase of it [puts us in a position to do them]. We are at no time to serve God with what costs us nothing, nor with any time that comes within the same rule. 2Sam 24.24 If we allow only the refuse of our time for this duty, when we have nothing else to do, or maybe, wearied by other occasions, these times are fit for nothing else, we should not expect any great success in it. This is one pregnant reason why men are so cold and formal, so lifeless in spiritual duties — namely, because of the times and seasons they allot to them. When the body is wearied with the labor and occasions of the day, and maybe the mind is indisposed in its natural faculties, even by the means of necessary refreshment, men think themselves fit to engage with God about the great concerns of his glory and their own souls!
This is what God condemns by his prophet: Mal 1.8, "If you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn't it evil? And if you offer the lame and sick, isn't it evil? Offer it now to your governor; will he be pleased with you, or accept you?"
Both the law of nature and all the laws of holy institutions require that we serve God with the best that we have, just as all the fat of the
inwards was to be offered in sacrifices. And do we think to offer that time to God in which we are unfit to appear before an earthly ruler?
Yet such, in my account, are the seasons, especially evenings, that most men choose for the duties of their holy worship. And you may do well to consider beyond the day and time which he has taken for Himself by an everlasting law,72 how little of the choice of your time you have offered to God as a free-will offering, that you may be excited to future diligence. If you therefore seriously intend this duty, choose the seasons for it in which you are most fit, when the natural vigor of your spirits is most free and active. Possibly some will argue that this may be such a time that the occasions of the world call most earnestly for your attendance to them. I say that is the season I would recommend. And if you can conquer your minds to redeem it for God at any cost, then your endeavors in it will be prosperous.
However, don't trust to whatever times offer themselves; don't risk taking them up. Let the time itself be a free-will offering to God, taken from the top of the heap, or the choicest part of your useful time.
2. Preparation of mind to a due reverence of God and spiritual things is required prior to this. When we go about this duty, if we rush into thoughts of heavenly things without due reverential preparation, we will quickly find ourselves at a loss See the rule, Ecc
5.1,2. "Grace to serve God with reverence and godly fear" is required in all things in which we have to deal with Him — as we have in this duty, in an immediate and especial manner. Endeavor, therefore, in the first place, to get your hearts deeply affected with an awed reverence of God, and a holy regard for the heavenly nature of the things you would meditate on. By this your minds will be composed, and the roots of other vain or earthly thoughts which are apt to arise and divert you from this duty, will be cast out. The principles of these contrary thoughts are like Jacob and Esau. They struggle in the same womb; oftentimes Esau will come out first, and for a while seem to carry the birthright. So too, if various thoughts conflict in our minds, some for this world and some for another, those for this world may carry it for a season. But where a due reverence for God has "cast out the bondwoman and her children" Gal 4.29,30 —the workings of the flesh in its vain thoughts and imaginations — the mind will be at liberty to exercise itself on spiritual things
3. Earnest desires for a renewed sense and relish of spiritual things are required for this. If we engage in this duty merely on a conviction of the necessity of it, or set ourselves about it because we think we ought to do so, and it would not be good to utterly neglect it, then we may not expect to be successful in it. But once the soul has tasted that the Lord is gracious, when its meditations on Him have been sweet, when spiritual things have had a savor and relish in the mind and affections, and upon this it comes to this duty with earnest desires to have the same tastes, the same experience, yes, to have them increased, then it is on the path of hopeful progress And this also will make us persevere in our endeavors to go through with what we undertake — namely, when we know by former experience what will be attained by it, if we dig and search for it as for a treasure.
If you think the right discharge of this duty may be attained another way, if you suppose it doesn't deserve all this cost and charge about it, then judge by what is past, whether it's advisable to give it up and let it alone. There are as many good intentions that lie quietly on the ground, as those which continually attempt to rise and yet never once effect it. Remember how many successless attempts you have made upon it, and all of them have come to nothing (or to what is as bad as nothing). I cannot say that in this way you will always succeed; but I fear that you will never have success in this duty without such things that are of the same nature and use.
When, after this preparation, you find yourselves still perplexed and entangled, and not able to comfortably persist in spiritual thoughts for your refreshment, take these two directions for your relief:
1. Cry and sigh to God for help and relief. Bewail the darkness, weakness, and instability of your minds, so as to groan within yourselves for deliverance. And if your designed meditations result only in a renewed gracious sense of your own weakness and insufficiency, with an application to God for supplies of strength, they are by no means lost as to a spiritual account. The thoughts of Hezekiah's meditations didn't seem to have any great order or consistency when he so expressed them: "Like a crane or a swallow, so I chattered; I mourned like a dove: my eyes fail with looking upward. O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me," Isa 38.14.
When the soul labors sincerely for communion with God, but sinks
into broken, confused thoughts under the weight of its own weakness, if he but looks to God for relief, his chattering and mourning will be accepted with God and profitable to himself.
2. Supply the brokenness of your thoughts with ejaculatory prayers, as either their matter or your defect in managing them requires. Thus is was with Hezekiah in the instance mentioned before. When his own meditations were weak and broken, he cries out in the midst of them, "O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me!" And meditation, properly, is a mixture of spiritual apprehension of God and of heavenly things, in the thoughts and conceptions of our mind, with desires and supplications concerning them.
It is good and profitable to have some special designed subject of meditation in our thoughts. I declared at large before what things are the proper objects of the thoughts of those who are spiritually minded; but they may be more particularly considered as the matter of designed meditation. They may be taken out of some especial spiritual experience that we recently had, or some warnings we received from God, or something with which we have been particularly affected in the reading or preaching of the word, or what we find the present posture and frame of our minds and souls require, or what supplies all most frequently — the person and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. If anything of this nature is particularly designed prior to this duty, and a time is sought for it with respect to that duty, the mind will be fixed and kept from wandering after a variety of subjects, in which it is apt to lose itself and bring nothing to completion.
Lastly, don't be discouraged with an apprehension that all you can attain to in the discharge of this duty is so little, so contemptible, that it is to no purpose to persist in it; nor be wearied with the difficulties you meet with in its performance. You have to deal with Him alone in this matter who "will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax," Isa 42.3 whose will it is that none should
"despise the day of small things." Zec 4.10 And "if there is" in this duty "a ready mind, it is accepted according to what a man has, and not according to what he has not." 2Cor 8.12 He that can bring into this treasury only the mites of broken desires and ejaculatory prayers, so
long as they are his best, shall not come behind those who put into it out of their greater abundance in ability and skill. To faint and give up because we cannot rise to such a height as we aim at, is a fruit of pride and unbelief. He who finds himself to gain nothing by continual endeavors after holy, fixed meditations, but only a living, active sense of his own vileness and unworthiness, is a sufficient gainer by all his pains, cost, and charge. But ordinarily, it will not be so; constancy in the duty will give the ability for it. Those who conscientiously abide in its performance will increase in light, wisdom, and experience, until they are able to manage it with great success.
These few plain directions may possibly be of some use to the weaker sort of Christians, when they find a disability in themselves to discharge this duty, in which those who are spiritually minded should be peculiarly exercised.
PART 2.