Resources
For the Puritans, meditation was a daily duty that enhanced every other duty of the Christian life.
“While I was musing the fire burned,” David said (Ps. 39:3). The word meditate or muse means to “think on” or to “reflect.” It also means “to murmur, to mutter, to make sound with the mouth…. It implies what we express by one talking to himself.”1William Wilson, Old Testament Word Studies (McLean, Va.: MacDonald Publishing, n.d.), 271. A person who practices this kind of meditation recites aloud a memorized passage of Scripture to himself in a low undertone.
The Bible often speaks of meditation. “Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide,” says Genesis 24:63. Even though the Lord gave Joshua the demanding task of supervising the conquest of Canaan, He commanded Joshua to meditate on the book of the law day and night so that he might do all that was written in it (Josh. 1:8). The term meditation, however, occurs more often in the Psalms than in all other books of the Bible together. Psalm 1 calls that man blessed who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night. In Psalm 63:6, David speaks of remembering the Lord on his bed and meditating on Him in the night watches. Psalm 119:148 says, “Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word” (cf. Pss. 4:4; 77:10–12; 104:34; 119:15, 48, 59, 78, 97–99).
Thinking, reflecting, or musing presupposes something to meditate on. Formal meditation implies weighty subjects. For example, philosophers meditate on concepts such as matter and the universe, while theologians reflect on God, the eternal decrees, and the will of man.
The Puritans never tired of saying that biblical meditation involves thinking on the triune God and His Word. By anchoring meditation in the living Word, Jesus Christ, and God’s written Word, the Bible, the Puritans distanced themselves from the kind of bogus spirituality or mysticism that stresses contemplation at the expense of action, and flights of the imagination at the expense of biblical content.
For the Puritans, meditation exercised both the mind and the heart; he who meditates approaches a subject with his intellect as well as his affections. Thomas Watson (c. 1620–1686) defined meditation as “a holy exercise of the mind whereby we bring the truths of God to remembrance, and do seriously ponder upon them and apply them to ourselves.”2Thomas Watson, Heaven Taken by Storm (Morgan, Pa.: Soli Deo Gloria, 2000), 23. For similar definitions by other Puritans, see Richard Greenham, “Grave Counsels and Godly Observations,” in The Works of the Reverend and Faithfull Servant of Jesus Christ M. Richard Greenham, ed. H. H. (London: Felix Kingston for Robert Dexter, 1599), 37; Thomas Hooker, The Application of Redemption … The Ninth and Tenth Books (London: Peter Cole, 1657), 210; Thomas White, A Method and Instructions for the Art of Divine Meditation with Instances of the Several Kindes of Solemn Meditation (London: for Tho. Parkhurst, 1672), 13.
Edmund Calamy (1600–1666) wrote, “A true meditation is when a man doth so meditate of Christ as to get his heart inflamed with the love of Christ; so meditate of the Truths of God, as to be transformed into them; and so meditate of sin as to get his heart to hate sin.” Calamy went on to say that, to do good, meditation must enter three doors: the door of understanding, the door of the heart and affections, and the door of practical living. “Thou must so meditate of God as to walk as God walks; and so to meditate of Christ as to prize him, and live in obedience to him.”3Edmund Calamy, The Art of Divine Meditation (London: for Tho. Parkhurst, 1634), 26–28.
For the Puritans, meditation was a daily duty that enhanced every other duty of the Christian life. As oil lubricates an engine, so meditation facilitates the diligent use of means of grace (reading of Scripture, hearing sermons, prayer, and all other ordinances of Christ; cf. Westminster Larger Catechism, Q. 154), deepens the marks of grace (repentance, faith, humility), and strengthens one’s relationships to others (love to God, to fellow Christians, to one’s neighbors at large).
The Puritans wrote of two kinds of meditation: occasional and deliberate. “There is a sudden, short, occasional meditation of Heavenly things; and there is a solemn, set, deliberate meditation,” Calamy wrote. Occasional meditation takes what one observes with the senses to “raise up his thoughts to Heavenly meditation.” The believer makes use of what he sees with his eyes, or hears with his ears, “as a ladder to climb to Heaven.” That’s what David did with the moon and stars in Psalm 8, what Solomon did with the ants in Proverbs 6, and what Christ did with well water in John 4.4Calamy, Art of Divine Meditation, 6–10. Thomas Manton (1620–1677) explained,
God trained up the old church by types and ceremonies, that upon a common object they might ascend to spiritual thoughts; and our Lord in the new testament taught by parables and similitudes taken from ordinary functions and offices among men, that in every trade and calling we might be employed in our worldly business with an heavenly mind, that, whether in the shop, or at the loom, or in the field, we might still think of Christ and heaven.5Thomas Manton, The Works of Thomas Manton (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1874), 17:267– 68
Nearly every Puritan book on meditation mentions occasional meditation. Some Puritans, such as William Spurstowe (c. 1605–1666) and Thomas Taylor (1576–1633), wrote entire books of occasional meditations.6William Spurstowe, The Spiritual Chymist: or, Six Decads Of Divine Meditations (London: n.p., 1666); Thomas Taylor, Meditations from the Creatures (London: [H. Lownes] for I. Bartlet, 1629). Occasional meditation is relatively easy for a believer because it may be practiced at any time, any place, and among any people. A spiritually minded person can quickly learn how to spiritualize natural things, for his desires run counter to the worldly minded, who carnalize even spiritual things.7Calamy, Art of Divine Meditation, 14–15. As Manton wrote, “A gracious heart is like an alembic [distillation apparatus], it can distil useful meditations out of all things it meeteth with. As it seeth all things in God, so it seeth God in all things.”8Manton, Works, 17:267. Cf. Thomas Watson: “A gracious heart, like fire, turns all objects into fuel for meditation,” from The Sermons of Thomas Watson (Ligonier, Pa.: Soli Deo Gloria, 1990), 247.
Occasional meditation had its dangers, however. Bishop Joseph Hall (1574–1656) warned that when left unbridled, such meditations could easily wander from the Word and become superstitious, as was the case in Roman Catholic spirituality.9Frank Livingstone Huntley, Bishop Joseph Hall and Protestant Meditation in Seventeenth- Century England (Binghamton, N.Y.: Center for Medieval & Early Renaissance Studies, 1981), 74. One’s imagination must be reined in by the Bible.
The most important kind of meditation is daily, deliberate meditation, engaged in at set times. Calamy said deliberate meditation takes place “when a man sets apart…some time, and goes into a private Closet, or a private Walk, and there doth solemnly and deliberately meditate of the things of Heaven.” Such deliberation dwells on God, Christ, and truth like “the Bee that dwells and abides upon the flower, to suck out all the sweetness.” It is “a reflecting act of the soul, whereby the soul is carried back to itself, and considers all the things that it knows” about the subject, including its “causes, fruits, [and] properties.”10Calamy, Art of Divine Meditation, 22–23; cf. Greenham, Works, 38.
Thomas White (c. 1577–c. 1672) said deliberate meditation draws from four sources: Scripture, practical truths of Christianity, providential occasions (experiences), and sermons. Sermons in particular are fertile fields for meditation. As White wrote, “It is better to hear one Sermon only and meditate on that, than to hear two Sermons and meditate on neither.”11White, Method and Instructions for the Art of Divine Meditation, 17–20.
Some Puritans divided deliberate meditation into two parts: meditation that is direct and focuses on the meditated object and meditation that is reflective (or “reflexive”) and focuses on the person who is meditating. Direct meditation is an act of the contemplative part of the understanding, whereas reflective meditation is an act of conscience. Direct meditation enlightens the mind with knowledge, while reflective meditation fills the heart with goodness.
Deliberate meditation can be dogmatic, having the Word as its object, or practical, having our lives as its object.12Manton, Works, 17:268. Thomas Gouge (1605–1681) combined several aspects of deliberate meditation: “A set and deliberate Meditation, is a serious applying of the mind to some spiritual or heavenly subject, discoursing thereof with thy self, to the end thine heart may be warmed, thine affections quickened, and thy resolutions heightened to a greater love of God, hatred of sin, &c.”13Thomas Gouge, Christian Directions, Shewing How to Walk with God All the Day Long (London: R. Ibbitson and M. Wright, 1661), 65.
Richard Baxter (1615–1691) said that “set and solemn” meditation differs from “occasional and cursory” meditation much as set times of prayer differ from spontaneous prayers uttered in the midst of daily business.14Richard Baxter, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest (repr., Fearn, Scotland: Christian Focus, 1998), 553. Cf. White, Method and Instructions for the Art of Divine Meditation, 14. Both kinds of meditation are essential for godliness. They serve both the needs of the head and the heart.15Henry Scudder, The Christian Man’s Calling (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, n.d.), 103–4. Cf. William Bates, The Whole Works of the Rev. W. Bates, D. D., ed. W. Farmer (repr., Harrisonburg, Va.: Sprinkle, 1990), 3:113–65. Without heart application, meditation is no more than study. As Thomas Watson wrote, “Study is the finding out of a truth, meditation is the spiritual improvement of a truth; the one searcheth for the vein of gold, the other digs out the gold. Study is like a winter sun that hath little warmth and influence: meditation…melts the heart when it is frozen, and makes it drop into tears of love.”16Thomas Watson, Gleanings from Thomas Watson (Morgan, Pa.: Soli Deo Gloria, 1995), 106.
Excerpt from
How Can I Practice Christian Meditation?
By Joel Beeke
