Heavenlize Your Spirit

Bartholomew Ashwood, The Heavenly Trade, pp. 144-146:

Fifthly, Dwell much in the meditation of Heaven; this will heavenlize your spirit: 'Twas this made the Apostles persons of such heavenly spirits; they did often look to things above. 1 Cor. 4.18. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. No affliction could discourage them from owning and professing Christ; nor earthly comforts allure their desires and delights from Christ; and that which so strongly guarded their hearts from either of these dangers, was a firm persuasion of an interest in future glory, and a diligent observing eye upon this glory: a levelling look at this mark does wonderfully raise the heart towards it, and put in a new spirit and life into the soul, strongly engaging all its attempts towards the enjoyment of it: Frequent contemplations of Heaven do much wean the heart from this Earth. If thou remembrest thou art not of this world, earthly things shall only be admitted into the Court of the Temple, not into the heart, which is the Holy of Holies, [Anthony Burgess] on 17. John. How contemptibly did those Worthies of old look on this world, when once they got sights of Heaven! Heb. 11, They counted themselves strangers and pilgrims on the Earth; were not mindful of their own Country; went out from it; would no more return to it; sought an heavenly Country; were persuaded of those great and glorious things above, and embraced them; laid hold of them by faith: and made after them: and that which did so powerfully work over their spirits to these things above, was their believing sights of them. V. 13. These all died in the faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off; that, the things promised, (viz.) heavenly things, of which Canaan was a type. So [David] Pareus refers the participles here to the things signified of the promise, that heavenly Country which they only desired. Things nearest Heaven (saith one [Thomas Adams]) take least care of the Earth: The Fowls of the Air neither plow nor sow. The glory of the world seems little to one that dwells much on the believing views of Heaven. 'Tis said of Fulgentius, That when he beheld the splendour and joy of Rome, the glory of the Roman nobility, the triumphant pomp of King Theodorick, he was so far from being taken with it, that it raised up his desires after heavenly joys the more, saying, How beautiful may the Celestial Jerusalem be, when [terrestrial] Rome so glittereth! If such honour be given to lovers of vanity, what glory shall be imparted to the Saints, who are lovers and followers of truth! Serious thoughts of Heaven will inflame desires after it: Our conversation is in Heaven (saith Paul) whence also we look for the Saviour, who shall change our vile bodies into the likeness of his glorious body. Phil. 3.20. We wait, hope for, and expect Heaven, to be where this blessed Country is; the breadth and length of which we now look into by faith. If your thoughts be much on Heaven, your longings will be much for Heaven. I have read of one being in his journey towards Jerusalem, though he saw famous Cities in his way, and met with many friendly entertainments; yet would often say, I must not stay here this is not Jerusalem: So will thy heart say (if thou conversest much in Heaven now) when thou meetest with the most desirable comforts of this life; yet this is not Heaven; my affections must not stay here. Allow time every day to take some turns in the upper world, and to get thy heart held in the galleries above; where are the sweetest delicacies, and most delighting views to take thy heart, and sublimate thy affections to these pure and eternal things?

Thomas Watson, A Body of Practical Divinity, p. 448:

1. Are we heavenly in our Contemplations? Do our Thoughts run upon this Kingdom? Do we get sometimes upon Mount Pisgah; and take a Prospect of Glory? Thoughts are as Travellers: Most of David's Thoughts travelled Heaven's Road, Psalm 139.17. Are our Minds heavenliz'd? Psalm 4812. Walk about Zion, tell the Towers thereof, mark ye well her Bulwarks. Do we walk into the heavenly Mount, and see what a Glorious situation it is? Do we tell the Towers of that Kingdom? While a Christian fixeth his Thoughts on God and Glory, he doth as it were tread upon the Borders of the heavenly Kingdom, and he peeps within the Vail: As Moses, who had a sight of Canaan, tho' he did not enter into it; so the heavenly Christian hath a sight of Heaven, tho he be not yet entered into it.

Spiritual Rumination

And the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you....The carcases of every beast which divideth the hoof, and is not clovenfooted, nor cheweth the cud, are unclean unto you: every one that toucheth them shall be unclean. (Lev. 1-7, 26)

And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat. Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you. And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase. (Deut. 14.6-8)

The Letter of Aristeas (c. 2nd century BC), 153-155:

For all cloven-footed creatures and ruminants quite clearly express, to those who perceive it, the phenomenon of memory. Rumination is nothing but the recalling of (the creature's) life and constitution, life being usually constituted by nourishment, wherefore he exhorts us in the Scripture also in these words: 'Thou shalt surely remember the Lord that wrought in thee those great and wonderful things' (Deut. 7.18; 10.21).

Philo of Alexandria, De Specialibus Legibus 4.107:

For just as a cud-chewing animal after biting through the food keeps it at rest in the gullet, again after a bit draws it up and masticates it and then passes it on to the belly, so the pupil after receiving from the teacher through his ears the principles and lore of wisdom prolongs the process of learning, as he cannot at once apprehend and grasp them securely, till by using his memory to call up each thing that he has learned by constant exercises which act as the cement of conceptions, he stamps a firm impression of them on his soul.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. (Ps. 1.2)

Samuel Smith, David's Blessed Man (re Ps. 1.2):

For without this meditation this law, which is the word of God, will either in time be forgotten, whereby we shall become unmindful of it, or else it will prove as a talent hid in the ground, utterly unfruitful unto us, for this meditation indeed is the third step of a true convert. The first is to hear the word of God readily; the second to remember it diligently; and the third to meditate on it seriously; and this is compared to the 'chewing of the cud,' Deut. xiv. 6, 7, which is never found in the unclean but in the clean beasts....Use 2. This may admonish all men, as they love their own souls, to make more care and conscience of the performance of this duty, to call to mind that we do hear or read, to think and muse upon it, to chew the cud, to lay it to heart, yea, and to apply it to our own souls and consciences in particular. This is like the rumination or chewing of the cud to be found only in the clean beasts, whereas they which chewed not the cud were unclean, Deut. xiv. 6, 7.

Bartholomew Ashwood, Heavenly Trade (re Ps. 1.2):

Meditation chews the cud, and gets the sweetness and nutritive virtue of the Word into the heart and life: this is the way the godly brings forth much fruit.

Thomas Watson, A Christian on the Mount, p. 2 (re Ps. 1.2):

Doctrine. The proposition that results out of the text is this, that a good christian is a meditating christian. "I will meditate in thy precepts," Ps. cxix.15. "Meditate upon these things," 1 Tim. iv.15. Meditation is the chewing upon the truths we have heard: the beasts in the old law that did not chew the cud, were unclean; the christian that doth not by meditation chew the cud, is the be accounted unclean.

I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. (Ps. 119.15)

George Horne, A Commentary on the Book of Psalms, p. 523 (re Ps. 119.15):

Meditation is that exercise of the mind, whereby it recalls a known truth, as some kinds of creatures do their food, to be ruminated upon, until all the nutritious parts are extracted, and fitted for the purposes of life. By study we lay in knowledge, by meditation we reduce that knowledge to practice.