1. Occasional meditation is an act by which the soul s[)iritualiseth every object about which it is conversant. A gracious heart is like an alembic ; it can distil useful thoughts out of all things that it meeteth with. Look, as it seeth all things in God, so it seetli God in all things. Thus Christ at Jacob's w'ell discourseth of the w^ell of life, John iv. ; at the miracle of tlie loaves, discourseth of manna, John vi. and vii. ; at the feast of tabernacles, of living waters ; at the Pharisee's supper, dis- courseth of eating bread in the kingdom of God, Luke xiv. 15. There is a holy chemistry and art that a Christian hath to turn water into wine, brass into gold, to make earthly occasions and objects minister spiritual and heavenly thoughts. God trained up the old church by types and ceremonies, tliat the things they ordinarily conversed with might put them in mind of God and Christ, their duties, and dangers, and sins. And our Lord in the New Testament taught by parables and similitudes taken from ordinary functions and offices amongst men, that in every trade and calling we might be employed in our worldly business with a heavenly mind ; that whether in the shop, or at the loom, or in the field, we might still think of Christ, and grace, and heaven. There is a parable of the merchantman, a parable of the sower, a parable of the man calling his servants to account, &c., that upon all these occasions we might wind up our minds, and extract some spiritual use from our common aftairs. Thus the creatures lift up our minds to the creator. David had his night meditation : Ps. viii. 3, ' AVhen I consider the heavens, the work of thy hands, the moon, and the stars which thou hast ordained,' &c. ; — the sun is not mentioned. When he was gone abroad in the night, his heart was set on work presently : and Ps. xix. 5, there is a morning meditation, for he seemeth to describe the sun coming out of his chambers in the east, and displaying his beams like a cloth of gold upon the world. A holy heart cannot want an object to lead him to the meditation of God's power, and goodness, and glory, and wise providence, who hath made and doth order all things according to the counsel of his will. There is a great deal of practical divinity in the very bosom of nature, if we had the skill to find it out. Job biddeth us, ' Ask the beasts, and they shall teach thee ; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee ; or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee ; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.' They speak by our thoughts.
140 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeP.. XYI.
2. There is set and solemn meditation. Now this is of several sorts, or rather, they are several parts of the same exercise.
[1.] There is a reflective meditation, whicli is nothing but a solemn parley between a man and his own heart : Ps. iv. 4, ' Commnne with yonr own heart and be still;' when we have withdrawn onrselves from company, that the mind may retnrn upon itself, to consider what we are, what we have been, what straits and temptations we have passed through, how we overcame them, how we passed from death to life. This is a necessary part of meditation, but very difficult. What can be more against self-love and carnal ease than for a man to be his own accuser and judge ? All our shifts are to avoid our own company, and to run away from ourselves. The basilisk dieth by seeing himself in a mirror, and a guilty man cannot endure to see his own natural face in the glass of the word. The worldly man choketh his soul with business, lest, for want of work, the mind, like a mill, should fall upon itself. The voluptuous person melteth away his days in pleasure, and charmeth his soul into a deep sleep with the potion of outward delights, lest it should awake and talk with him. Well, then, it is necessary that you should take some time to discourse with yourselves, to ask of your souls what you have been, what you are, what you have done, what shall become of you to all eternity : Jer. viii. 6, ' No man asketh of himself, what have I done ? ' You would think it strange of two men that conversed every day for forty or fifty years, and yet all this while they did not know one another. Now, this is the case between us and our own souls ; we live a long time in the world, and yet are strangers to ourselves.
[2.] There is a meditation which is more direct, when we exercise our minds in the word of God and the matters contained therein. This is twofold : —
(1.) Dogmatical, or the searching out of a truth in order to know- ledge : ' Proving what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God,' Pvom. xii. 2. This is study, and difFereth from meditation in the object, and supposeth the matter we search after to be unknown, either in whole or in part ; whereas practical meditation is the inculca- tion or whetting of a known truth upon the soul : and it differs in the end ; the end of study is information, and the end of meditation is practice, or a work upon the affections. Study is like a winter sun, that shineth, but warmeth not ; but meditation is like blowing up the fire, where we do not mind the blaze but the heat. The end of study is to hoard up truth ; but of meditation, to lay it forth in conference or holy conversation. In study, we are rather like vintners, that take in wine to store themselves for sale ; in meditation, like those that buy wine for their own use and comfort. A vintner's cellar may be better stored than a nobleman's ; the student may have more of notion and knowledge, but the practical Christian hath more of taste and refreshment.