Chapter 2. Showing the Nature of Meditation
Chapter 2.
Showing the Nature of Meditation If it is inquired what meditation is, I answer, meditation is the soul's retiring by itself, so that by a serious and solemn thinking upon God, the heart may be raised up to heavenly affections. This description thus has three branches.
1. Meditation is the soul's retiring by itself.
A Christian, when he goes to meditate, must lock himself away from the world. The world spoils meditation; "Christ went apart into the mount to pray," Mat 14.23. So go apart when you are to meditate;
"Isaac went out to meditate in the field," Gen 24.63. He sequestered and retired himself so that he might take a walk with God by meditation. Zaccheus had a mind to see Christ, and he got out of the crowd; "He ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore-tree to see him," Luk 19.3, 4. So, when we would see God, we must get out of the crowd of worldly business. We must climb up into the tree by retiring into meditation, and there we will have the best prospect of heaven.
The world's music will either play us to sleep, or distract us in our meditations. When a speck has gotten into the eye, it hinders the sight; when worldly thoughts, like specks, have gotten into the mind, which is the eye of the soul, it cannot look up so steadfastly to heaven by contemplation. Therefore, as when Abraham went to sacrifice, "he left his servant and the ass at the bottom of the hill," Gen 22.5. So when a Christian is going up the hill of meditation, he should leave all secular cares at the bottom of the hill, that he may be alone and take a turn (a short walk) in heaven. If the wings of the bird are full of lime, she cannot fly. Meditation is the wing of the soul. When a Christian is ensnared with earth, he cannot fly to God upon this wing. Bernard, when he came to the church door, used to say, Stay here all my worldly thoughts, that I may converse with God in the temple. So say to yourself, I am going now to meditate. O all you vain thoughts stay behind, do not come near! When you are going up the mount of meditation, take heed that the world does not follow you, and throw you down from the top of this pinnacle. This is the
first thing: the soul's retiring by itself — lock and bolt the door against the world.
2. Meditation is a serious and solemn thinking upon God.
The Hebrew word to meditate, signifies to recollect and gather together the thoughts with intenseness. Meditation is not a cursory work, to have a few transient thoughts of religion — like the dogs of Nilus that lap and run away.35 Rather, in meditation there must be a fixing of the heart upon the object, a steeping of the thoughts. Carnal
Christians are like quicksilver which cannot be made to fix; their thoughts are roving up and down, and will not fix — like the bird that hops from one bough to another, and stays nowhere. David was a man fit to meditate, "O God, my heart is fixed," Psa 108.1. In meditation there must be a staying of the thoughts upon the object. A man who rides post through a town or village, minds nothing there; but an artist or portrait painter who is looking at an elaborate piece, views the whole draft and portraiture of it. He observes the symmetry and proportion; he minds every shadow and colour. A carnal, flitting Christian is like the traveller: his thoughts ride post;36 he minds nothing of God. A wise Christian is like the artist: he views with seriousness and ponders the things of religion; "But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart" Luk 2.19.
3. Meditation is the raising of the heart to holy affections.
A Christian enters into meditation as a man enters into the bath,37 so that he may be healed. Meditation heals the soul of its deadness and earthliness. But more of this afterwards.