Topical index
This page highlights portions of works in the archive which relate to selected topics.
The thoughts and intellect
"This holy meditation is a dwelling and abiding upon things that are holy; it is not only a knowing of God, and a knowing of Christ, but it is a dwelling upon the things we know; as the Bee that dwells and abides upon the flower, to suck out all the sweetness that is in the flower; so to meditate upon God and Christ, and the Sacrament, it is to dwell upon God, and the Sacrament, to suck out all the sweetness we can in the things we meditate upon."
-Edmund Calamy, The Art of Divine Meditation
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"Secondly, as it is an exercise, so it is a selted exercise, it is not a sudden flash of a mans conceit, but it dwels upon a truth. When a man is in a deep meditation upon a thing he neither sees, nor hears, nor attends any thing else; the stream of the heart is setled upon the truth received; The Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the world, 1 John 2.14. How came these young men to overcome Satan? not by looking into the word, or only thinking of the word, but by letting the word abide in them. When a man hath been offered an injury, his heart is always setled upon it, when he eats, his mind runs on the injury; when he walks, and talks, still his mind runs on the injury: so thy heart must go on the truth, 2 Tim. 3. Continue in things thou hast learned: that is, take up thy mansion house in them. A wicked man may turn into the word sometimes to think of it, but it is as a man goes into another mans house: there is not his dwelling."
-William Fenner, "The Second Sermon of the use and benefit of Divine Meditation"
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The affections
"It is an act of the heart as well as of the head;
it is not only a speculative knowledg of things
Divine, but a practical knowledg; it is not only an
act of the intellect and understanding,
but of the will and affections; it is an
affective grace as well as an intellective grace"
-Edmund Calamy, The Art of Divine Meditation
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"Now I come to that which is the easiest part of Meditation,
I mean easie to understand,
but not easie to practice; I come to that which is the best
part of Meditation, the very life and soul of Meditation, and
that is to help you to get your affections warmed and heated
by the things you meditate upon; for the work of the
understanding is nothing else but to be as a Divine pair
of bellows, to kindle and inflame the heart and affections; the work of the
understanding is to chew and prepare matter, to help
the affections."
-Edmund Calamy, The Art of Divine Meditation
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"Dive into they own soul and heart. There is a tough
brawn over thy heart,that it feals not its sins. Now Meditation must
look through,and come to the heart at the quick, and cause the truth to
dive into the deep places of the soul. When the timber is hard, the [17] workman cannot thrust in the nail with the weight of his hand: no, he
must hammer it in. Meditation is the hammering of the heart. It's a
pertinent phrase, Jer.23,24. Is not my word like a fire (saith the Lord)
and like a hammer that breaketh the rocks in pieces? There be two similitudes,first,of a hammer: the Word of God is the hammer; meditation
is the hand that taketh this hammer, and knocks the nail into the rocky
heart ,and makes it enter: Wilt thou not feel? I'le make thee feel (saith
Meditation) wilt thou not take notice of thy wretched estate? Meditation comes with blow after blow,and makes us take notice. Secondly,
of fire; the word is like fire, Meditation kindles it about the heart. A
man benummed with cold is senselesse; the water frozen with cold,
though the least pebble would have sunk in it before,now a great milstone is able to lye upon it, and not sink; the water is able to bear it: so
is the heart, be it's sins never so heavy, as the hill of Basan, yet it bears
it and feels no weight: but Meditation thawes the heart,and then every sin pincheth and oppresseth. Is not my word like fire? as if he should
say, think of it, and muse of it, and metate of it, and thou shall feel it as
a fire. Meditation is the often smiting of the heart with this hammer..."
-William Fenner, "The Second Sermon of the use and benefit of Divine Meditation"
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Practical applications to life
"Whatever you meditate upon must be drawn down to
Application, Iob 5.27. Lo this, we have
searched it, so it is, hear it, and know thou it for thy
good. In Meditation our aim and design is to promote
the good of our Souls. The Heathen
Emperour Antoninus had Observations, which he
called [...], things for my
se[...]f,
that is the proper end of this Exercise, things for our
selves. In Conference
we aim at the good of others, but the end of Meditation is
to fall directly upon our own Souls. All the while we stay
in generals we do but bend the Bow, when we come to
Application we let fly the Arrow, and we hit the Mark when
we come to return upon our own Souls. Now this Application
must be partly by way of Tryal· partly by way of
Charge."
-Thomas Manton, "Sermons on the XXIV. Chapter of Genesis" [Sermon II.]
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"If you would have this work of Meditation carried on with profit and sweetness, join with your Meditation, the examination of your own souls, in case you meditate on God and Christ, think you your selves by way of examination, But have I an Interest in this? I have been now thinking and meditating on the excellencies of Christ, but have I an Interest in him? Come Oh my soul, though hast been meditating on God, and on the excellencies of Christ, but hast thou any share, hast thou any Interest therein? Joyne examination with your Meditation, then it will be profitable, then it will be sweet; otherwise it is but Contemplation, or but a study; but join examination with your Meditation, so 'tis sweet, and so 'tis profitable."
-William Bridge, "The Work and Way of Meditation"
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Persevering in meditation
"And lastly, This Divine Meditation must be
persevereing; you must persevere in this
duty, though you cannot at first
find the benefit and comfort that you expect. There are many
Christians that have set upon this work of Meditation, and
finding it too hard and difficult,
and meeting with so much opposition in their hearts, wandering
thoughts, and abundance of
spiritual distempers, they have been discouraged, and laid
it aside, which certainly they ought not to have
done.
...Meditation is the life of all Religion, and that
which puts life into all other duties. It is of great
necessity, and therefore
you must not be weary of well-doing, you must persevere, for there is no grace crowned without
perseverance."
-Edmund Calamy, The Art of Divine Meditation
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"The people of God generally have found a great deal of
difficulty in praying
without a form at first. Many godly Ministers used a set
Form of Prayer before their Sermons not many years since and
when they and priva[...]
Christians came to pray at first without a Form, they found
a strangeness and an unreadiness thereunto; So it is in
Meditation, Christians being not used to it, it will seem a strange and difficult work
unto them, but I may say of it, as is said of the yoke
Christ, Gravè cum tollis, suave cum tuleris,
thou wilt find it very delightful, or at least very
profitable."
-Thomas White, A Method and Instructions for the Art of Divine Meditation
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