Thomas Watson (1620-1686)
I hear some say [that] when they sit alone, they know not what to meditate of; I shall therefore furnish them with matter of meditation.
1. Meditate seriously upon the corruption of your nature. We have lost that pure, quintessential frame of soul that once we had. There is a sea of sin in us. Our nature is a source and seminary of all evil - like Peter’s sheet, wherein were “wild beasts and creeping things”(Act 10:12). This sin cleaves to us as a leprosy. This original pollution makes us guilty before the Lord; and though we should never commit actual sin, this merits hell. The meditation of this would be a means to pull down our pride…
2. Meditate seriously upon the death and passion of Christ. His soul was overcast with a cloud of sorrow when He was conflicting with His Father’s wrath; and all this, we should have suffered: “He was wounded for our transgressions” (Isa 53:5)… The serious meditation of this would produce repentance. How could we look upon Him “whom we have pierced” and not mourn over Him? When we consider how dear our sins cost Christ, how should we shed the blood of our sins that shed Christ’s blood? The meditation of Christ’s death would fire our hearts with love to Christ. What friend shall we love, if not Him Who died for us? His love to us made Him cruel to Himself. As Rebecca said to Jacob, “Upon me, be thy curse” (Gen 27:13). Christ said, “Upon me, be thy curse,” [so] that poor sinners may inherit the blessing.
3. Meditate on your evidences for heaven. What have you to shew for heaven if you should die this night? Was your heart ever thoroughly convinced of sin? Did you ever see yourself lost without Christ? Conviction is the first step to conversion (Joh 7:16). Hath God ever made you willing to take Christ upon His own terms? “He shall be a priest upon his throne” (Zec 6:13). Are you as willing that Christ should be upon the throne of your heart to rule as a priest at the altar to intercede? Are you willing to renounce those sins to which the bias of your heart doth naturally incline?...Are you willing to take Christ for better for worse, to take Him with His cross and to avouch Christ in the worst of times? Have you the indwelling presence of the Spirit? If you have, what hath God’s Spirit done in you? Hath it made you of another spirit—meek, merciful, humble? Is it a transforming Spirit? Hath it left the impress of its own holiness upon you? These are good evidences for heaven. By these, as by a spiritual touchstone, you may know whether you have grace or no…
4. Meditate upon the uncertainty of all sublunary comforts. Creature delights have their flux and reflux. How oft doth the sun of worldly pomp and grandeur go down at noon…We say everything is mutable, but who meditates upon it?... “The world passeth away” (1Jo 2:17)…There’s no trusting to anything: health may be turned to sickness, friends may die, riches may take wings…The serious meditation of this would Keep us from being so deceived by the world. We are ready to set up our rest here: “Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever” (Psa 49:11)... Have not we seen great disappointments; and where we have thought to suck honey, there we have drunk wormwood? The meditation of the uncertainty of all things under the sun would much moderate our affections to them... The fire may break in where the thief cannot… The meditation of this uncertainty would make us look after a certainty, that is, the getting of grace…Grace is a flower of eternity. Death doth not destroy grace but transplants it and makes it grow in a better soil. He that hath true holiness can no more lose it than the angels can, which are fixed stars in glory.
5. Meditate of God’s severity against sin. Every arrow in God’s quiver is shot against it. Sin burned Sodom [and] drowned the old world. Sin kindles hell. If it is so terrible when a spark of God’s wrath flies into a man’s conscience, what is it then when God stirs up all His wrath? (Psa 78:38). The meditation of this would frighten us out of our sins. There cannot be so much sweetness in sin as there is sting. How dreadful is God’s anger! “Who knoweth the power of thine anger?” (Psa 90:11). All fire, compared with the fire of God’s wrath, is painted and imaginary!...
6. Meditate on eternal life, “This is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life” (1Jo 2:25)... This is a spiritual life. It is opposite to that animal life that we live now. Here we hunger an d thirst; but there we shall “hunger no more” (Rev 7:16)… The bodies of the saints shall be enameled with glory: they shall be made like Christ’s glorious body (Phi 3:21). And if the cabinet be of such curious needlework, how rich shall the jewel be that is put into it! How bespangled with glory shall the soul be! Every saint shall wear his white robe and have his throne to sit upon. Then God will put some of His own glory upon the saints. Glory shall not only be revealed to them, but in them (Rom 8:18). And this life of glory shall be crowned with eternity… The meditation of eternal life would comfort us in regard of the shortness of natural life. Our life we live now flies away as a shadow: it is called a flower (Psa 103:15), a vapor (James 4:14)… but eternal life comforts us against the shortness of natural life. That life to come is subject to no infirmities...
Thus, you have seen six noble subjects for your thoughts to expatiate upon.