(2.) Practical and applicative. This we now speak of; and it is that duty and exercise of religion whereby the mind is applied to the serious and solemn consideration and improvement of the truths which we understand and believe, for practical uses and purposes. Not like a man that soweth and never reapeth ; or a woman that often con- ceives, but never brings forth living children.
YeE. 15.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 141
(1st.) It is a duty ; for it is commanded, Josh. i. 8, ' This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is -written therein.' As the promise is general, ' I will not leave thee nor forsake thee,' Heb. xiii. 5, so is the command. To meditate in the law is a part of the description of a godly man : Ps. i. 2, ' His de- light is in the law of the Lord, and in that law doth he meditate day and night.' It is commended to us by the practice and example of the saints in scripture. Isaac, Gen. xxiv. 63, ' went out to meditate in the field in the eventide,' to pray, as in the margin ; the word in the ori- ginal is indifferent to both senses ; it properly signifieth muttering, or an imperfect or suppressed sound. The Septuagint sometimes renders it by deiSeiv, to sing ; but others by dSoXea-^ijaat, which signifies to exercise himself. The word is used here iv rat? ivrokaU o'ov dSo\ecr)(7]aco. Symmachus, XaXijaai, to speak ; Aquila, 6fj,iXi]aai, to discourse with God and his own soul. The original word, n\vb, sig- nifieth to mutter, or such a speaking as is between thoughts and words. He made his duty his refreshment and solace at night. So David often in this psalm. Eeason enforceth it. God, that is a spirit, de- serveth the most pure and spiritual worship by the mind, as well as that which is performed by the body. Thoughts are the eldest and noblest offspring of the soul, and it is fit they should be consecrated to converse with God.
(2d.) li I?, Q. necessary duty; not a thing of arbitrary concernment, a moral help that may be observed and omitted at our pleasure ; but of absolute use, without which all graces Avither. Faith is lean unless it be fed with meditation on the promises : Ps. cxix. 92, ' I had fainted in my affliction, unless thy word had been my delight.' Hope is not lively unless we contemplate the thing hoped for, and, with Abraham, walk through the land of promise, Gen. xv., and think often and seriously on ' the glory of the riches of the inheritance of the saints,' Eph. i. 18, and get upon the mount of meditation, upon the top of Pisgah, to get a view of the land. So for love ; the more we study ' the height, and breadth, and depth of God's love in Christ,' Eph. iii. IS, 19, the more is the heart melted and drawn out to God, and more quickened to obedience : Ps. xxvi. 3, ' Thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes/ And as it helpeth our graces in their exercise, so all other duties ; as hearing of the word. To hear and not to medi- tate is unfruitful. The heart is hard and the memory slippery, the thoughts loose and vain ; and therefore, unless we cover the good seed, the fowls of the air will catch it away. It is like a thing put into a bag with holes — lost while it is received : James i. 23, 24, ' Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own souls ; for if a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man belioldiug his natural face in a glass ; for he beholdeth himseh', and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of person he was.' Bare hearing begets but transient thoughts, and leaveth but a weak im- pression in the soul ; like a flash of lightning, as soon gone as come, or the glance of a sunbeam upon a wave. A man never discerneth the scope, ihe beauty, the order of the truths delivered, till he cometh to meditate on them, and to go over them again and again in his
142 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XVI.
thoughts : Ps. Ixii. 11, ' God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this,' &c., i.e., when we repeat it upon our thoughts, inculcate it, and meditate upon it, this maketh a deeper impression, and that which is spolcen rehounds again and again ; it is twice heard. David saith, Ps. cxix. 99, ' I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation.' The preacher can hut lay down general theorems and deduce practical inferences ; but that which fasteneth them upon the heart is our own thoughts ; and so we come to be wiser, to see more clearly and practically as to our own case than he that preacheth ; we see a further use than he was aware of. So for prayer ; what Ave take in by the word we digest by meditation, and let out by prayer. These three duties help one another. What is the reason men have such a barren, dry, and sapless spirit in their prayers ? It is for want of exercising themselves in holy thoughts : Ps. xlv. 1, ' My heart inditeth a good matter ;' and then ' My tongue is as the pen of a ready writer.' It alludeth to the mincah, the meat- offering ; the oil and flour were to be kneaded together, and fried in a pan, and so offered to the Lord. When we come with raw dough- baked offerings, before we have concocted and prepared our thoughts by mature deliberation, we are barren or tumultuary in our prayers to God. Prayer is called by the name of meditation, because it is the product and issue of it ; as Ps. v. 1, ' Give ear to my words, 0 Lord ; consider my meditation.' So Ps. xix. 14, ' Let tbe words of my'mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight ; ' implying that prayer is but the vent and expression of what we have deliberated and meditated upon. So David findeth his desires more earnest after grace, the more he mused and meditated : Ps. cxliii, 5, 6, ' I remember the days of old ; I meditate on all thy works ; I muse on the works of thy hands ; I stretch forth my hands unto thee ; my soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land.' Well, then, it is the life and strength of other ordinances, without which how slight and perfunctory are we ! I might instance in conference ; the stream of good discourse is fed by serious thoughts. The Lord's Supper, a duty which is mainly de- spatched by our thoughts ; there we come to put reason to the highest use, to be the instrument of faith and love ; of faith in believing appli- cations ; of love, in resolutions of duty and thankfulness. In that one ordinance there is a union of mysteries, Avhicli we take abroad in holy and serious thoughts. To have an unfruitful understanding, then, is a great damp and deadness to the heart. ISow, we shall never en- large ourselves in pertinent and savoury thoughts, unless we use to meditate ; for spiritual dispositions do not come upon us of a sudden, and by rapt motions, but by progressive and orderly degrees and preparations.