6. Meditate of those things especially which you have most need of. There is the greatest obligation upon the heart. The matter is not arbitrary ; there you will find most help, and there the benefit will be most sensible. Seasonable thoughts have the greatest influence. The servants of God have sometimes meditated on his power, sometimes on his mercy, sometimes on liis providence, according as their affairs and temptations call for it : Ps. Ivi. 3, ' What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.' In a time of fear he would think of arguments of trust.
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7. Whatever you meditate upon, take heed of slightness. Transient thoughts leave no impression. See that you meditate but of one thing at once. Hoc age, mind the work you are about, is a good rule in meditation as well as prayer, the thoughts should be under a restraint and wise confinement. A skipping mind, that wandereth from one meditation to another, seldom profiteth. In meditation be not like the dogs of Nile, that snatch here and there, or like the bee, that passeth from flower to flower. A constant fixed light worketh most. The apostle speaketh of apostates that they have flashy tastes : Heb. vi. 4, 5, ' They were once enlightened, and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come.' They had vanishing and fleeting motions : James i. 25, ' He that looketh into the law of liberty,' 6 Be irapaKv^^ra'i, he that boweth down to take a deliberate view ; it is a metaphor taken from them that stoop down, and bend their bodies toward a thing that they may narrowly pry into it. The same word is used to imply that narrow search which the angels use to find out the mysteries of salvation by : 1 Peter i. 12, ' Which things the angels desire irapaKvi^eLv, to look into,' an allusion to the cherubim, whose faces bowed down towards the ark, as desirous to see the mysteries therein contained. There must be. a deep sight and serious inculca- tion : Luke ii. 19, ' But Mary kept all these sayings, and pondered them in her heart,' avfxjBaXkovaa ; she examined, compared them, traversed them to and fro in her mind, which is afterwards expressed, ver. 51, ' She kept all these sayings in her heart.' There is a folly in man, when once we apprehend a thing ; curiosity being satisfied, we begin to loath it, the first apprehension having as it were deflowered it, but at last they lose their power and virtue. When digestion is pre- cipitated there is no nourishment, and when the meditation is not deep and ponderous we have no comfort, no lively perception and feeling of it in our hearts. A glance doth not discover the worth of anything ; he that doth but cast his eye upon a piece of embroidery doth not dis- cover the art of it.
8. Come not off from holy thoughts till you find profit by them, either sweet tastes and relishes of the love of God, or high affections kindled towards God, or strong resolutions begotten in yourselves. Usually God droppeth in sweetness into the hearts of his people, as all those ecstasies of love in the Canticles were occasioned by medita- tion. But we cannot always expect raptures and high elevations ; it is some fruit if it maketh you fall to prayer and holy complaints.
9. Be thankful to God when he blesseth you in meditation, or else you will find difficulty in the next. Christians often forget to return God the glory : Cant. i. 4, ' Draw me, we will run after thee, the king hath brought me into his chambers ; we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy loves more than wine ; the upright love thee.' That which goeth up in vapours cometh down in showers. So the psalmist, Ps. Ixvii. 5, 6, * Let the people praise thee, 0 God, let all the people praise thee ; then shall the earth yield her increase, and God even our own God, shall bless us.' There is a mutual access and recess between the rivers and the sea, so there is between blessings and praises. In this duty God is jealous lest we should give the honour to ourselves, because there is so much work of our own thonirhts : Ps. Ixiii. 4, 6,
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* Because thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee: thus will I bless thee while I live, I will lift up my hands in thy name.' Not only in my necessity, but for ever, for such sweet experiences.
10. Do not bridle up the free spirit by the rules of method. That which God calleth for is religion, not logic. When christians confine themselves to such rules and prescriptions, they straiten themselves, and thoughts come from them like water out of a stUl, not like water out of a fountain. Voluntary and free meditations are most smart and pregnant. In all arbitrary directions, that make only for the conveni- ency of the duty, you must remember we come to you like Paul to the Corinthians : 1 Cor. vii. 12, ' To the rest speiik I, not the Lord.' "We do not prescribe, but advise.