Chapter 7: Showing the Necessity of Meditation

It is not enough to carry the book of Gods law about us, but we must meditate in it. The necessity of meditation will appear in three particulars. First, the end why God has given us his word written and preached, is not only to know it but that we should meditate in it. The word is a letter of the great God written to us, now we must not run it over in haste but meditate upon Gods wisdom in inditing, and his love in sending it to us. Why does the physician give his patient a receipt? Is it that he should only read it over and know the receipt, or that he should apply it? The end why God communicates his Gospel receipts to us is, that we should apply them by fruitful meditation: would God (think we) ever have been at the pains of writing his law with his own finger only that we should have the theory and notion of it? Is it not that we should meditate in it? Would he ever have been at the cost to send abroad his ministers into the world, to furnish them with gifts, Ephesians 4, and must they for the work of Christ be nigh unto death that Christians should only have an empty knowledge of the truths published? Is it only speculation or meditation that God aims at?

Second, the necessity of meditation appears in this, because without it we can never be good Christians; a Christian without meditation is like a soldier without arms or a workman without tools. First, without meditation the truths of God will not stay with us, the heart is hard and the memory slippery, and without meditation all is lost; meditation imprints and fastens a truth in the mind, it is like the selvedge which keeps the cloth from raveling. Serious meditation is like the engraving of letters in gold or marble which endure. Without this all our preaching to you is but like writing in sand, like pouring water into a sieve, like throwing a burr upon crystal which glides off and does not stay. Reading and hearing without meditation is like weak physic which will not work; want of meditation has made so many sermons in this age to have a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

Second, without meditation the truths which we know will never affect our hearts, Deuteronomy 6:6. These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. How can the word be in the heart unless it be wrought in by meditation? As a hammer drives a nail to the head, so meditation drives a truth to the heart. It is not the taking in of food but the stomach's concocting it, which makes it turn to blood and spirits, so it is not the taking in of a truth at the ear but the meditating of it (which is the concoction of it in the mind) makes it nourish. Without meditation the word preached may increase notion not affection. There is as much difference between the knowledge of a truth, and the meditation of a truth, as there is between the light of a torch and the light of the sun: set up a lamp or torch in the garden, and it has no influence. The sun has a sweet influence, it makes the plants to grow, and the herbs to flourish: So knowledge is but like a torch lighted in the understanding, which has little or no influence, it makes not a man the better; but meditation is like the shining of the sun, it operates upon the affections, it warms the heart, and makes it more holy. Meditation fetches life in a truth. There are many truths lie, as it were, in the heart dead, which when we meditate upon, they begin to have life and heat in them. Meditation of a truth is like rubbing a man in a swoon, it fetches life. It is meditation makes a Christian.

Third, without meditation we make ourselves guilty of slighting God and his word. If a man lets a thing lie by, and never minds it, it is a sign he slights it: Gods Word is the book of life, not to meditate in it, is to undervalue it. If a king puts forth an edict or proclamation, and the subjects never mind it, it is a slighting the king's authority. God puts forth his law as a Royal Edict, if we do not meditate in it, it is a slighting his authority, and what does this amount to less than a contempt done to the Divine Majesty?