The saints everlasting rest

I call this meditation set and solemn, to difference it from that which is occasional. As there is prayer which is solemn, when we set ourselves wholly to the duty; and prayer which is sudden and short, commonly called ejaculations, when a man in the midst of other business, doth send up some brief request to GOD: so also there is meditation solemn, when we apply ourselves only to that work; and there is meditation which is short and cursory, when in the midst of our business we have some good thoughts of GOD in our minds. And as solemn prayer is either first set, when a christian observing it as a standing duty, doth resolvedly practise it in a constant course; or secondly, occasional, when some unusual occasion doth put us upon it at a season extraordinary: so also meditation.

Now, though I would persuade you to that meditation which is mixed with your common labours, and to that which special occasions direct you to; yet these are not the main things which I here intend: but that you would make it a constant standing duty, as you do hearing, and praying, and reading the scripture, and that you would solemnly set yourselves about it, and make it for that time your whole work, and intermix other matters no more with it, than you would do with praying, or other duties. Thus you see, what kind of meditation it is that we speak of, wiz. the set and solemn acting of all the powers of the soul.

The second part of the difference is drawn from its object, which is rest, or the most blessed estate of man in his everlasting enjoyment of GOD in heaven. Meditation hath a large field to walk in, and hath as many ⟨p. 326⟩objects to work upon, as there are matters, and lines, and words in the scriptures, as there are known creatures in the whole creation, and as there are particular discernible passages of Providence in the government of persons and actions through the world: but the meditation that I now direct you in, is only of the end of all these, and of these as they refer to that end: it is not a walk from mountains to valleys, from sea to land, from kingdom to kingdom, from planet to planet; but it is a walk from mountains and valleys to the holy mount Zion; from sea and land to the land of the living; from the kingdoms of this world, to the kingdom of saints; from earth to heaven; from time to eternity. It is a walking upon the sun, and moon, and stars; it is a walk in the garden and paradise of GOD. It may seem far off; but spirits are quick: whether in the body, or out of the body, their motion is swift; they are not so heavy or dull as these earthly lumps, nor so slow of motion as these clods of flesh. I would not have you cast off your other meditations; but surely as heaven hath the pre-eminence in perfection, so should it have the pre-eminence also in our meditation: that which will make us most happy when we possess it, will make us most joyful when we meditate upon it; especially when that meditation is a degree of possession, if it be such affecting meditation as I here describe.