Section 2

Rule 2.2. Read before you meditate, Joshua 1:8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate in it. The law must be in Joshua's mouth. He was first to read and then meditate. Give attendance to reading, 1 Timothy 4:13. Then it follows, meditate on these things, verse 15. Reading does furnish with matter. It is the oil that feeds the lamp of meditation. Reading helps to rectify meditation. Augustine says well, that meditation without reading will be erroneous. Naturally the mind is defiled as well as the conscience, Titus 1:15. The mind will be minting thoughts, and how many untruths does it mint? Therefore first read in the book of the law and then meditate; be sure your meditations are grounded upon Scripture. There is a strange Utopia in the fancies of some men; they take those for true principles which are false, and if they mistake their principles they must necessarily be wrong in their meditations. He that is of the Sadducee's opinion that there is no resurrection, he mistakes a principle. Now while he is meditating on this he is at last carried to direct atheism. He that is of the Antinomian's opinion that there is no law to a justified person, mistakes a principle, and while he is meditating on this he at last falls into scandal. Thus the mind having laid in wrong principles, and taking that for a truth which is not, the meditation must necessarily be erroneous, and a man at last goes to hell upon a mistake. Therefore be sure you read before you meditate, that you may say, it is written. Meditate on nothing but what you believe to be a truth, believe nothing to be a truth, but what can show its letters of credence from the Word. Observe this rule, let reading usher in meditation: Reading without meditation is unfruitful, meditation without reading is dangerous.