"This duty of meditation": An early PECUSA Lenten sermon
Pointing to the works of Law and Augustine, Duffie presents meditation as the soil in which prayer grows (again, this is significant pastoral and spiritual wisdom). It also demonstrates how the Old High tradition, amidst the 'Second Great Awakening', offered a sober piety as a serious alternative to the pursuit of the experiences of Enthusiasm. Such sober piety, as seen in the duty of meditation, could sustain a lively, meaningful spiritual life in which, quoting Law, "every place 'be turned into a chapel'".
If, my brethren, we would perform this duty of meditation profitably to ourselves, and agreeably in the sight of God, we shall not merely on one day of the week, but frequently, continually, and habitually, set God before us, even striving to lift our affections to heaven and heavenly things. His word is the great treasure-house of holy thoughts, and is calculated to suggest most important and elevated themes; and in it those topics which we find by experience most likely to promote pious dispositions, whether the representations of his threatenings which affect our fears, or his gracious promises which excite our hopes; these should be most diligently and frequently resorted to, in order to dispose our hearts to his service. In the vast disclosures of the Bible, there is enough to excite the best inquiries of the mind, to fill and occupy all its powers, to ennoble all its faculties, to awaken all its apprehensions, and to animate all its desires and its hopes.
The condemnation to which we were reduced by the fall, and our recovery by Jesus Christ; the aids of the Holy Spirit which are vouchsafed to enable us to work out our own salvation; the accountability of our nature; the immortality of the soul; the resurrection of the body; the joys of heaven, which it is for us by diligence to secure, and the miseries of hell, which it is left to our own prudence to avoid; these are themes which cannot be dwelt upon, felt, and believed, without affecting our desires and our purposes, influencing our prayers, and controlling, in consequence, our whole character and destiny.
Mr. Law, in his treatise upon Christian perfection, says, "These truths much more effectually raise the heart to God, than any particular precepts to prayer; they do not so much exhort as carry the soul to devotion. He that feels these truths feels himself devout. They leave a light upon the soul which will kindle in holy flames of love and delight in God." The way, therefore, to live in true devotion, is to live in the contemplation of these truths: we must daily consider the end and hope of our calling, that our minds may be formed and raised to such tempers and dispositions, as are suitable to it; that all little anxieties, worldly passions, and vain desires, may be swallowed up in one great desire of future glory. "When the heart is in this state," then we shall live by faith and not by sight; then the invisible things of the life to come, will form the reason, the motive, and the measure, of all our tempers and desires; then shall we be devout worshippers of God everywhere; the common actions of life be acts of religion, and every place "be turned into a chapel;" and where such a devotion exists, it will not fail to be supported, and kept alive, by its proper exercises of "hours and forms of prayer."
It was in reflections such as these, excited by considering the vanity of life and the afflictions to which it is subject, that the Psalmist was employed, when, as he says in the words of the text, "My heart was hot within me; and while I was thus musing the fire kindled, and at the last I spake with my tongue." And in these words, the process from reflection to devotion, and from devotion to prayer, is most justly and naturally pourtrayed; for reflection is the ground-work of religious feeling, and meditation gives wings to prayer.
Indeed, my brethren, when the mind is habitually disposed to meditation, it holds continual communion with God. Its thoughts run into the language of prayer, the meditation of the heart, not less than the words of the mouth, are accepted in the sight of the Lord, so that the truly pious man may submit both to his observation, and say, in the language of David, not merely, "Give ear to my words, O Lord; but also consider my meditation." Thus the whole book of Psalms, which is a transcript of the thoughts of a pious mind, is also a book of prayer.
And the same may be said of all those books of meditation, in which, from the days of St. Austin, good men have communicated to the world the train of their thoughts, and the habitual feelings of their hearts. "If any man does not relish devotion, it is because his heart does not enter into it; and that for this reason, that he is engaged on other things. He that would be devout, must have a full view of his own miseries, and his wants, and of the vanity of the world, and then his soul will be full of desires after God." This can only be by reflection upon himself, and therefore "self reflection is the shortest and most certain way of becoming truly wise and truly pious." "The spirit of prayer has no further hold upon us than as we see our wants, imperfections, and weakness," on the one hand, and on the other, "the infinite fulness, willingness, and all-sufficiency of God." Without reflection, however, neither of these truths will duly impress us; and therefore, without reflection, we shall not sincerely pray; for we "can desire nothing but what we think we want, and we can desire it only in such a degree as we feel the want of it."
(The painting is George Harvey, 'Nightfall, St. Thomas Church, Broadway, New York', c. 1837.)
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