SERMONS UPON GENESIS 24:63

'And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even-tide' Gen. xxiv.63

MY WORK now is to handle the lets or hindrances of meditation together with the helps and means that may quicken you to the performance of it. The lets may be sooner discovered than remedied, as the nature of many diseases is better known than the cures, and therefore they are call opprobria medicorum, the disgrace of the physician¡¯s skill; so these remain as marks and memorials of the fall. Entire and uninterrupted visions are the privileges of heaven; we must be contented with our broken and imperfect measures; it is enough that we have ¡®doves¡¯ eyes,¡¯ Song of Solomon 4:1; that we can peck and look upward, and enjoy some temperate glances on the glory of our hopes, though we be not transported with the ravishments of a constant and steady vision. We cannot expect to be absolute; we shall still have cause to be humbled; it is enough if we can be encouraged against despair; for many find themselves so unfit that they have not hopes enough to attempt the duty. To these I shall speak ch iefly in this discourse. I had thought to have handled the lets severally, and then the helps; but I think it would be better to suit each discouragement with its proper helps.
The lets and hindrances are of several sorts, some common to this with other duties, and others more peculiar to the duty of meditation.
First, I begin with the first sort, such hindrances as are common to other duties, and they are four—
1. Sloth
2. Love of pleasure
3. A guilty con-science
4. An unwieldy mind
1. There is a spiritual slothfulness. Men lie upon the bed of ease, and are loath in good earnest to apply themselves to what is painful and difficult. If grace would drop to them out of the clouds, or God would be contented with some faint lazy wishes, or some cold and yawning expressions of a drowsy devotion, they would be religious; but where duties must cost labour and self-denial, and put them to pains, men withdraw the shoulder, and hang off. Therefore Solomon saith, Prov. 21:25, 'The desire of the slothful killeth him, for his hands refuse to labour.' They would fain have grace, and perform what God requires, but are loath to take pains. Now, as this is a prejudice against all other duties, so especially against the duty of meditation; partly because of all duties it is most difficult and tedious to the flesh; it is a duty lying within the soul; we cannot so easily command our own thoughts. Now inward duties are the most difficult, because we cannot always exercise a dominion over our own spirits. Partly because it is a private duty, to which God alone is conscious. In public duties secular interests and ends have a great constraint, and therefore we excite the heart to be more intent and serious. We see byends make men deny themselves, but where there is not this to prompt them, they either omit the work, or turn it into a slight and idle practice.
How shall we do to shake off this spiritual sloth? I answer—
[1.] You must consider that a lazy spirit is most unfit for Christianity. The whole Christian life is carried on with much labour and diligence. You were as good never look after Christ and heaven as refuse labour. There is nothing required in the whole compass of religion but what will cost you a great deal of pains. Faith is a work: John 6:29, ' That is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.' It is not a barren idle speculation, nor a naked apprehension, but a matter of difficulty and diligence to bring Christ and the soul together, and to lodge the soul in the bosom of Christ. Love is labour: Heb. 6:10, ' God is not unrighteous, to forget your work and labour of love.' It is not a naked profession, but there is labour in it; take it either for love to God or men. For love to God, that is not a fellow-like familiarity, but a laying out ourselves in his service; or for love to men, that doth not consist in a few good words. Debts are not paid with a noise of money ; you do not satisfy the commandment by saying, ' Depart in peace, be ye warmed, be ye filled, if you give them not those things which are needful to the body,' James 2:16. So for obedience: it is expressed by a constant course of work and labour: 1 Cor. 15:58, ' Be ye steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.' Religion is a constant exercise: there are no loiterers in heaven. God's work must not be followed with a faint wish and a slack hand. Men mistake religion if they think it a broad and easy way where men may live at large. No, the gate is narrow and the path is strait, and few there be that find it; it is a work, not a sport and play; and men had as good lay all thoughts of God and Christ aside as to resolve upon an easy course, and flatter themselves with an expectation that they shall go to heaven with a lazy wish, and fancy such a short cut and passage to heaven as will cost no pains.
[2.] It is better to take pains than to suffer pains, and to be bound with the cords of duty than with the chains of darkness. The bonds of duty are not gyves, but ornaments, for duty is the greatest freedom: Ps. 119:45, 'I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts.' You will never be more free than when you once make experience of God's service. How sad is it to see men prejudiced against such pains as yield freedom and comfort for the present and glory for the future, and take pains for that for which they shall suffer eternal pains! Isa. 5:18, ' Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with cart ropes.' They moil and toil in the work of Satan as a horse in a mill, and labour for their own destruction. Consider the devil's work is drudgery and his reward is death; yet such is the wretchedness of man, that he accounteth nothing toilsome but God's work, and nothing pleasant but the accomplishment of his own lusts, to be lust's vassal and pride's slave, and to be at the command of every covetous and unclean desire. How do men toil in the world, go to bed late, rise early, eat the bread of sorrows, exhaust and waste their strength and spirits, and yet there is sin in the work, and hell in the wages! Oh! consider, if it seem difficult, which is better, to labour for a season, or suffer for ever ? which is the end of them that live in the constant neglect of a known duty.
[3.] There is nothing so hard in God's service but he hath manifested love enough to sweeten it. We begrudge a few thoughts of God, and God had thoughts of us before all worlds: Ps. 40:5, 'Many, O Lord my God, are the wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are toward; they cannot be reckoned up in number unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered; 'Ps.139:17 ' How precious also are thy thoughts unto me O God ! How great is the sum of them! ' Who can tell what a condescension it was for infiniteness to think of poor worms, and that he should before all worlds plot and design our salvation? And when the plot came out, there was a great deal of love to sweeten duty. The Lord Jesus Christ thought no danger too great, no suffering or extremity too hard, no work too difficult for our sakes, what a mercy is this! God hath not only required obedience, but discovered a love that may sweeten the difficulties of it.
[4.] There is no difficulty in religion wholly insuperable and too hard for an active and industrious spirit. Those that follow on after God do at length find him to their comfort. A faint pursuit is the cause of discouragement. When a flint doth not strike fire at the first, we strike again: Prov. 10:4, ' He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent rnaketh rich.' It is a rule in grace as well as nature; let us therefore follow on till we have overcome the difficulty that is before us.
[5.] A lazy backward heart must be urged forward with the greater importunity. When David was shy of God's presence, he lays a command upon himself: Ps. 32:5, 'I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord;' he maketh reason to issue out a decree and positive conclusion. So Ps.39:1, ' I said I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue.' So by just analogy we may gather that the soul should in this case determine, I will go and try, and see what may be done; I will keep off from God no longer, but will go to him.
2. Another let and hindrance is love of pleasures. Men that would pass their time in mirth are unwilling to be so solemn and serious. When children's minds are set to play, it is irksome to hear of school or of their books; so when the heart is set for pleasure, it is a hard matter to bring the soul to religious performances.
How shall we do to wean the soul from pleasures?
[1.] Consider to love pleasure is to gratify the beast in us rather than the angel. Man is in part an angel and in part a beast; he hath a nature common to both. Now when men study altogether to gratify their sensual part, it is to turn men into beasts. To serve our lowest faculty, and to enjoy pleasures without remorse, is the happiness of the beasts; to eat, and drink, and sleep, and sport is but to do as the beasts do; a man's delight should be in the pure and free exercises of reason. If men would exercise themselves herein, they would find the greatest delectation would be in the contemplation and view of truth: Ps. 19:8, ' The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.' That taste which hypocrites have of the good word of God, Heb. 6:5, is merely such as scholars have in the height of speculation and study, because the gospel is such an excellent contrivance, and a sublime satisfying truth. Nulla major voluptas quam fastidium voluptatis; there is no greater pleasure than a disdain of sensual pleasures.
[2.] Consider the sweetness of religious exercises is far better than that of carnal pleasures, as that heat is more manly that is gotten by exercise than by hovering over the fire. It is hard, I confess, to abjure accustomed delights; pleasantness is connatural to us; but we should consider that by communion with God in spiritual exercises delight is not abrogated but preferred, and advanced to a more noble becoming object; it is taken out of Egypt that it may grow in Canaan, transplanted out of a fen into a paradise, that it may thrive in a better soil; it is less dreggy, but more masculine and grave: Ps. 104:34, ' My meditation of him shall be sweet; I will be glad in the Lord ;' Eph. 5:4, ¡®Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.' We keep the affection, but change the object. The comforts of Christianity are expressed by terms proper to the delights of the senses, to teach us this excellent art, to keep the affection and change the object, and by an holy sleight and wile to cozen the soul into better joys. Here delight is most pure and more free, no excess is vicious. Castce delicice mece sunt scriptures tuce; thy scriptures are my chaste delights. The pleasures of the world are but sugared baits; a man may soon lose himself; but here by trial you will find the same sweetness with less hazard and danger.
[3.] We may make choice of matter more pleasant to allure the soul. All the objects of meditation are not dark and gloomy; there are some things pleasing to nature—the variety of providences, the beauty of the creation, the excellent contrivance of the gospel. All objects are not mournful, and in case of such a temptation we may allure the soul; and when we are not so fit for the severe exercises of the closet, we may, as Isaac, go out into the fields to meditate, and heighten fancy and imagination by objects more pleasant.
3. The next general hindrance is a guilty conscience. When the soul is under the burden of guilt, we are loath to be serious and alone, lest the mind should fall on itself; of all things we then desire to flee the company of ourselves, and therefore meditation is an unpleasant duty. We cannot think of God but as of a judge, nor of a world to come but as of our own ruin. A guilty conscience would fain obliterate the thoughts of God; as the guilty heathens, Rom. 1:28, ' They did not like to retain God in their knowledge;¡¯ that is actual, sound, distinct thoughts of God. It is said, James 2:19, 'The devils believe and tremble.' Thoughts of God impressed the more horror on them, therefore they cried out, Mat. 8:29, 'Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?' So guilty men are under these horrors, 'They are all their lifetime subject to bondage,' Heb. 20: 15; which, though it be not always felt, is soon awakened: Job 21:14, 'Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.'
What shall we do to remedy this.
[1.] Get your conscience cleansed by the hearty application of the blood of Christ. A galled conscience is much discomposed and un-settled, and unfit for such an exercise; musing requireth a quiet sedate mind.
[2.] There are matters comfortable that maybe of excellent relief to the spirit. When the soul is sadly humbled, and bondage is indeed revived, there is an hope set before us to which we may fly for refuge: Heb. 6:18, ' That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.' The wounded soul may run up to the mountains of myrrh and frankincense. So David, Ps. 94:19,' In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.'
4. Another let and hindrance is unwieldiness of spirit to spiritual and heavenly duties. The heart is many times burdened and oppressed, and sunk down with its own burden and weight, that it cannot be lifted up to any holy duties, and so is unfit for any exercise of religion. This our Saviour bids his disciples have a care of: Luke 21:34, 'Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life.'
Pleasures and cares do as it were hang a weight upon the soul that it cannot mount up to God in heavenly exercises. This is expressed by a fat heart: Isa. 6:10 'Make, the heart of this people fat;' that is, spiritually dull, as it is observed of the ass, which is the simplest of all creatures, it hath the fattest heart. There is a spiritual dullness and listlessness that is apt to seize upon us.
What shall we do to help this?
[1.] Learn a holy moderation and sobriety in outward businesses and pleasures. As the apostle says of prayer, Eph. 6:18, ' Watching thereunto;' the same rule holds good in meditation. Watch that you may always keep the soul in a fitness for the duty; order your affairs with great wisdom, that you may not jostle out so necessary a duty. When a man is encumbered with business, there.is no room left for such an exercise; if he let loose his heart disorderly all the day, he will find this spiritual dullness to seize on him.
[2.] Keep the body in a fit frame, that it may not be a clog to the soul, but a dexterous instrument. There is a sanctification of the body: 1 Thes. 5:23, ' And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' And the apostle commands, 1 Thes. 4:4, ' That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour.' Men emasculate and weaken their strength and spirits, and so the body loseth its fitness.
Secondly, There are hindrances that are peculiar to the duty of meditation. I shall name but two—
barrenness of thoughts
and inconstancy.
1. Leanness and barrenness of thoughts. When we go about to meditate, we have no matter whereupon to bestow our time and thoughts, and so Christians are much discouraged. This is opposite to that which the scripture calls the abundance of the heart: Mat. 12:34, ' Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh;' that is, when there is a holy treasure in the soul.
Now to remedy this—
[1.] You must not give way to it, but try and use constant exercise. When we give way to such indispositions, they prove an utter bondage. Voluntary neglects are punished with penal hardness, and evils grow upon us; as to lie in the dirt will make us more filthy, and by little and little men are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. The apostle speaks of them that have aistheteria gegumnasmena: Heb. 5:14,' Who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.' All habits are increased by frequent acts, long disuse makes the duty uncouth. Wells, which are at first a puddle, are the sweeter for draining. If we are under indisposition, should we not strive to come out of it? The more we work, the more vigorous and free is the soul for the work of God.
[2.] Get a good stock of sanctified knowledge. Let there be a treasure in your hearts: Mat. 13:52, ' Every scribe which is instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.¡¯ Those that buy by the penny will be sometimes in want: Prov. 6:21, 22, ' Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest it shall lead thee, when thou sleepest it shall keep thee, and when thou awakest it shall talk with thee.' This is the way to make truths present and ready in the thoughts; when we have laid them up, we can the better lay them out.
[3.] When the heart is barren, think of your own sins and corruptions, and the experiences of God to your own souls. If we did not want an heart we could never want matter, did we but consult with our own experiences: Ps. 40:12, ' Innumerable evils have compassed me about; mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head, therefore mine heart faileth me.' And if nothing else will come to hand, meditate upon your present unfitness for any holy duty.
[4.] You may season and affect your mind before meditation with some part of God's word. Reading is a good preparative, and when we have taken in food, we may exercise our depastion and digestion upon it.
2. A loose garish spirit, that is apt to skip and wander from thought to thought. There is a madness in man; his thoughts are light and feathery, tossed to and fro, and like the loose wards in a lock, only kept up whilst we are turning the key. This doth much discourage Christians, that they cannot keep up their affections and command their thoughts.
How shall we help and remedy this?
[1.] When you go to meditate, you should exercise a command and restraint upon yourselves. This is expressed in scripture by trussing up the loins of your minds: Luke 12:30, 'Let your loins be girded about;' an allusion to their hanging garments, that they trussed up when they went about any work, that they may be compact and succinct. Lay a command upon yourselves: Zeph. 2:1, ' Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired!'
[2.] Pray and call in the help of God's Holy Spirit: Ps. 86:11, ' Unite my heart to fear thy name.' Lord, make my heart one. He that could stay the sun can stay the fleeting of your thoughts.
[3.] Dry up these swimming toys and fancies with the flame of heavenly love. Love unites the heart, and where we have a pleasure, there we can stay: Ps. 119:97, ¡® Oh, how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.'
[4.] Let the course of your lives be grave and serious. The mind is according to the course of the life. You flatter yourselves when you think you are able to command spiritual thoughts on a sudden, when you have suffered your thoughts to rove and wander: Prov. 17:24, 'Wisdom is before him that hath understanding, but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth ;' here and there and everywhere.
[5.] Watch against the first diversion; how plausible soever it be, look upon it as an intruding that breaks the rank. The devil injects good thoughts sometimes that he might divert your other thoughts. Charge your thoughts that they may not disturb your meditation : Song of Solomon 3:5, 'I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my love till he please.'
[6.] When you come to meditate in God's presence, do not bring the world with you; purge yourselves of all carnal affections: Ezek. 33:31,' Their heart goeth after their covetousness.' Always consider this, the prevailing lust will engross the thoughts. To a distracted mind no place is a solitude; the very closet is a marketplace. Therefore before meditation we should purge our hearts of worldly affections.
 
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