The Soul's Preparation for Christ

There are four things to be considered in it,¹ §1First, it is an exercise of the mind: it doth not barely close with a truth and apprehend it, and see it, and assent unto it, and there rest, but it looks on every side of the truth. It is a fine phrase of Davids, ²I thought upon my ways, and turned my feet into thy testimonies. The original carrieth it, I looked upon my ways on both sides, it is taken from curious works which are the same on both sides; they that work them must often turn them on every side: so it was with the prophet David, I turned my ways upside down, and looked every way on them.³ And so again, Many shall run too and fro and knowledge shall be increased. Run too and fro, what is that? It is not the bodily removing of the man so much as the busy stirring of the mind from one truth to another; it propounds one, and gathers another, so that it sees the whole selvage of the truth. I use to compare meditation to perambulation, when men go the bounds of the parish, they go over every part of it, and see how far it goes; so meditation ⟨p. 84⟩is the perambulation of the soul; when the soul looks how far sin goeth, and considers the punishment of it, and the plagues that are threatened against it, and the vileness in it.

There are foure things to be considered in it,¹ §1First, it is an exercise of the mind: it doth not barely close with a truth and apprehend it, and see it, and assent unto it, and there rest, but it lookes on every side of the truth. It is a fine phrase of Davids, ²I thought upon my waies, and turned my feet into thy testimonies. The originall carryeth it, I looked upon my waies on both sides, it is taken from curious workes which are the same on both sides; they that work thē must oftē turn them on every side: so it was with the prophet David, I turned my waies upside downe, and looked every way on them.