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reason why many times mean christians excel those of the best gifts, because they spend their time in subtle inventions and inquiries, and whilst we strive to be more subtle they are more sincere. Oh ! con- sider the soul is diseased while it is only fed with quails and fine notions ; there is more delicacy but less nourishment. Notions that are airy tickle the fancy, and move the lighter part of the afiPections, but those considerations that are grave and masculine convince most soundly, and work most deeply : ' Wisdom entereth into the heart,' Prov. ii. 10. Look, as wicked men do not please themselves in abstrac- tions of sin, they devise wickedness to accomplish it, so the christian should not satisfy himself with nice speculations, but employ his thoughts about practical matters to promote holiness in his heart and life.
[2.] Choose matters to meditate upon in an orderly and apt method. But you will say, Do you think this useful to confine the soul to method in meditation, to prescribe a set course to ourselves ? Shall we not jostle out seasonable thoughts ? I answer —
(1.) It is lawful and necessary to prescribe to ourselves a course and method, partly that we may know our work, and that we may not be to seek both of a subject and how to work upon it; therefore, that you may keep your religious exercises together, and know how to pass from one to another, it is good to keep a set course. Partly because things work with us according to method ; it is the way of knowledge and affection ; the soul finds it an excellent advantage when things are aptly suited and ranked in their order. God himself hath disposed all his works in order, so should we ours. You will find an advantage when you take your rise low, and go on from matters more plain and obvious to those that are more mysterious. There are shallows for the lambs of God, and there are deeps for those of an higher growth and stature. You must pass from the most obvious matter of Christianity to those that are of more sublime speculation. The rise of the sun is first low, and gildeth with its beams the eastern parts, and then riseth higher to the top of the heavens ; so in your progress there are the third heavens to which you must ascend, but first you must pass the first and second heavens. Before we search the depths of the Spirit, it is good to search the depths of the belly (I compare Paul's expression with Solomon's), to begin with the knowledge of ourselves before we come to the knowledge of God. Prius redi ad te qicam rimari prce- sumas quce supra te, is a rule of Bernard, who was of much experience in these exercises ; first return to ourselves, and by an orderly progress to go on from examination of ourselves, before we soar up to the con- templation of the divine glory. You know what Christ saith, John iii. 12, ' If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things ? ' They were spiritual matters he spake of, regeneration and principles of religion ; yet in comparison of deeper mysteries of religion, and because he had set them out by earthly similitudes of generation, water and the wind, he called them ' earthly things.' Christ trained up his own disciples this way ; first he begins with plain matters : John xvi. 12, ' I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them yet.' There were greater mysteries above the reach and size of their present capacity. So the
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apostle Paul speaketh of wisdom for them that are perfect : 1 Cor. ii. 6, ' Howbeit we speak wisdom to them that are perfect ; ' that is, for them that had made some progress in religion ; perfect, not absolutely, but in comparison with babes and novices. Therefore it is good, with Mary, to sit at the feet of Jesus, and not presently with the spouse to beg the kisses of his mouth, but to go on by degrees.
(2.) Though we must contrive a method and course, yet there must be a liberty left for things, for all seasons and occasions. As in the world, though a man hath disposed his business, yet he reserveth a liberty for incidental and unthought of occasions ; so in these spiritual matters, and in the course of religious exercises, you must not bind up yourselves from these occasions. I shall name four —
{1st.) Working and forcible sermons. It is not good to lose the heat that we have gotten at the word, but to go home and chew the cud. In the word there is ingestion ; in meditation you turn it into nourishment. There must be a time for concoction, and when the seed is scattered, it must be covered.
(2d.) For present impulses, keep yourselves free, that you may not lose the advantage of such impulses. Many times Christ cometh ' leaping upon the mountains, and skipping upon the hills,' Cant. ii. 8. He impelleth our hearts on a sudden and unlocked for, by causing holy thoughts to shoot into our minds ; by representing our unworthi- ness, coldness, and deadness of life ; or else he inflameth us by repre- senting the beauty and loveliness of grace. Then it is good those thoughts should take the next turn, and our method must give way to God's dis- pensation. As general nature altereth its course in some great par- ticular exigencies, fire descendeth, and water ascendeth, so in this case the general work must be interrupted. It is a kind of resisting God not to entertain these motions ; I do not mean when they come upon you in the necessary work of your callings, but only that they may have the next turn.