Chapter 17. Containing seven divine Motives to Meditation
Chapter 17.
Containing seven divine Motives to Meditation Motive 1. Meditation distinguishes and characterizes a man. By this he may take a measure of his heart, whether it is good or bad. Let me allude to that verse, "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he," Pro 23.7.
As the meditation is, so is the man. Meditation is the touchstone of a Christian; it shows what mettle he is made of. It is a spiritual index.
Just as an index shows what is in the book, so meditation shows what is in the heart. If all a man's meditations are how he may get power against sin, how he may grow in grace, how he may have more communion with God, then it will show what is in his heart. The frame of his heart is spiritual. Judge the health of your soul by the beating of this pulse. It is the character of a godly man that he fears
God "and thinks of His name," Mal 3.16. Whereas, if the thoughts are taken up with pride and lust, then as the thoughts are, so is the heart:
"their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity," Isa 59.7. When vain sinful thoughts come, men make much of them. They make room for them; they diet and lodge with them. If a good thought were by chance to come into their mind, it is soon turned out of doors as an unwelcome guest. What further witness do we need? This argues for much unsoundness of heart. Let this provoke us to holy meditation.
Motive 2. Thoughts of God, just as they bring delight with them, so they leave peace behind. Those hours are the best which are spent with God. Conscience, like the bee, gives honey. It will not grieve us when we come to die, that we have spent our time in holy soliloquies and exclamations. But what honour will the sinner have when he asks his conscience, as Joram asked Jehu (2Kng 9.22), "Is it peace, my conscience? Is it peace?" And conscience will say, as Jehu did,
"What peace, so long as the whoredoms of your mother Jezebel, and her witchcrafts, are so many?" Oh how sad it will be for a man at such a time! Christians, as you tender your peace, "meditate on God's law day and night," (Psa 1.2).
This duty of meditation being neglected, the heart will run wild; it will not be a vineyard, but a wilderness.
Motive 3. Meditation keeps the heart in good decorum. It plucks up the weeds of sin; it prunes the luxuriant branches; it waters the flowers of grace; it sweeps all the walks in the heart, so that Christ may walk there with delight. For lack of holy meditation, the heart lies like the sluggard's field, "all overgrown with thorns and briers,"
Pro 24.31, with unclean earthly thoughts. It is the devil's hog sty, rather than Christ's garden. It is like a house fallen to ruin, fit only for unclean spirits to inhabit.
Motive 4. The fruitlessness of all other meditations. One man lays out his thoughts about laying up his goods (Luk 12.19); his meditations are how to raise himself in the world. And when he has arrived at an estate, God often blows it away, Hag 1.9. His care is for his child, and perhaps God takes it away; or if it lives, it proves to be a cross. Another meditates on how to satisfy his ambition. "Honour
Me before the people," 1Sam 15.30. Alas, what is honour but a meteor in the air, a torch lit by the breath of people and blown out by the least puff! How many live to see their names buried before them!
When this sun is in the meridian, it soon sets in a cloud.
Thus, those meditations which do not centre upon God are fruitless — like carrying dust against the wind. But especially at death, a man will see that all those thoughts which were not spent on God, were fruitless. "In that very day his thoughts will perish," Psa 146.4. I may allude to it in this sense: all worldly, vain thoughts will perish and come to nothing in that day of death. What good will the whole globe of the world be at such a time? Those who have revelled in their thoughts and impertinences, will only be disquieted more. It will cut them to the heart to think how they have spun a fool's thread. A Scythian captain having yielded the city for a draught of water, cried out, "What have I lost? What have I betrayed?" So it will be with that man, when he comes to die, who has spent all his meditations upon the world. He too will say, 'What have I lost? What have I betrayed? I have lost heaven; I have betrayed my soul.' And shouldn't the consideration of this fix our minds upon thoughts of God and glory?
All other meditations are fruitless — like a piece of ground for which much has been laid out, and yet it yields no crop.
Motive 5. Holy meditation is not lost. God has a pen to write down all our good thoughts. "A book of remembrance was written for those who thought upon his name," Mal 3.16. As God has all our members, so he has all our meditations written in his book. God pens our private devotion.
Motive 6. The sixth motive is in the text, namely, the blessedness affixed to the meditating Christian: "Blessed is the man,'' etc., Psa 1.1.
Do not say it is hard to meditate. What do you think of blessedness?
Lycurgus 97 could draw the Lacedemonians 98 to anything by rewards. If men can meditate with delight on what will make them cursed, shouldn't we meditate on what will make us blessed? Indeed, in the Hebrew it is in the plural, blessednesses — we will have one blessedness upon another.
Motive 7. Lastly, delightful meditation in God's law is the best way for a man to prosper in his estate. "This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it; for then you will make your way prosperous," Jos 1.8. I leave this to the consideration of those who desire to thrive in the world; and let this serve as a motive to meditation.
The next thing remaining is to lay down some rules about meditation.