Q&A: What did the English Puritans have to say about Scripture meditation?
The English Puritans were the masters of Scripture meditation. Here are some quotes I've collected as I've read their works through the years. These have encouraged me.
(If this interests you, I recommend David Saxton's book, God’s Battle Plan for the Mind: The Puritan Practice of Biblical Meditation. I didn't include the hundreds of very good Puritan quotes about meditation listed in that book. It really serves as a comprehensive resource on what the Puritans taught on the subject.)
Isaac Ambrose
The more we meditate on Christ, the more we shall love Him, and the more we love Him, the more we shall delight in Him.
William Bates
Without meditation, the heart is unfit for prayer, the Word, or any holy exercise.
Richard Baxter
The mere reading of Scripture, without meditation, may make you more knowing, but not more holy. The bee that only flies over the field will never gather honey, but that which abides on the flowers and sucks the nectar from them.
Meditation is the bellows of the affections, and prayer is their flame; where meditation is neglected, prayer will soon grow cold.
The more we meditate on Christ, the more we shall be transformed into His likeness.
I think that as a man is but half an hour in chewing and taking into his stomach that meat which he must have seven or eight hours at least to digest; so a man may take into his understanding and memory more truth in one hour than he is able well to digest in many. A man may eat too much, but he cannot digest too well.
William Bridge
There can be no thriving in grace without much meditation. He that trades little in this spiritual merchandise shall be poor in faith, and weak in obedience.
He that would taste the sweetness of divine truth must chew upon it by holy meditation; truth, like the honeycomb, yields its virtue when well pressed and pondered.
When the soul is barren, let meditation plow up the fallow ground, and soon the dews of grace will descend.
Would you be holy? Then be much in meditation, for as the wax receives the impression of the seal, so the soul receives the impression of Christ by holy contemplation.
Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening, but meditation is the deep converse with God throughout the day.
Anthony Burgess
Meditation imprints upon the soul the image of the things meditated upon.
Jeremiah Burroughs
Meditation is the palate of the soul whereby we taste the sweetness of divine truths.
Edmund Calamy
The Scripture is a mine of treasure, but it must be dug into by meditation.
He that is a stranger to meditation will be a stranger to the power of godliness.
William Gurnall
Meditation is a soul-fattening duty. Without it, truth is like a seed left on the surface of the ground—it may sprout, but it will soon wither.
Joseph Hall
Without meditation, the heart cannot be good; without meditation, the soul cannot be at peace; without meditation, the life cannot be holy.
To meditate is not to read, nor to hear, but to digest what we have read and heard; otherwise, like undigested food, it will not nourish the soul.
The heart that is fixed upon God in meditation will not easily be drawn away to vanity.
The soul that oftener meditates will less often stumble.
Matthew Henry
The heart is hard, and the memory is treacherous; meditation makes truth stick and take root."
Ezekiel Hopkins
A man cannot live a holy life who does not daily meditate upon the holy God.
Thomas Hooker
Meditation is the serious intention of the mind whereby we come to search out the truth, and settle it effectually upon the heart.
Thomas Manton
Meditation is the life of all the means; without it, hearing is like swallowing meat without chewing it, and prayer is like an arrow shot without a bow.
It is not the bee’s touching of the flower which gathers honey, but her abiding for a time upon the flower which draws out the sweet. So it is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most, that will prove the choicest Christian.
Meditation is the mother of wisdom and holiness, and the nurse of prayer.
He that meditates much will be better prepared for suffering, for he has long considered the promises and comforts of the gospel.
John Owen
As we abound in spiritual thoughts, so will our affections be also.
The minds of men are like a ship without ballast; they are easily driven into the sands of worldliness unless kept steady by holy thoughts.
Spiritual meditation is the mother of all real prayer.
Nathanael Ranew
A worldly heart cannot be a meditating heart, nor a meditating heart a worldly heart.
In a time of trouble, a soul accustomed to meditation will find itself in a fortified tower, while others are tossed upon the waves of distress.
Richard Sibbes
Meditation is a help to knowledge, a help to memory, a help to practice, and a help to comfort.
William Spurstowe
Meditation is the fountain from which a godly life springs.
George Swinnock
By meditation, thy knowledge is raised into affection, and thy affection is raised into resolution.
James Ussher
One hour spent [in meditation], is worth more than a thousand sermons, and this is no debasing of the word, but an honor unto it.
Thomas Watson
The design of study is notion, the design of meditation is piety: the design of study is the finding out of a truth; the design of meditation is the spiritual improvement of a truth; the one searcheth for the vein of gold, the other digs out the gold.
The design of study is notion, the design of meditation is piety: the design of study is the finding out of a truth; the design of meditation is the spiritual improvement of a truth; the one searcheth for the vein of gold, the other digs out the gold.
Satan is content that you should be hearing and praying christians, so that ye be not meditating christians; he can stand your small shot, provided you do not put in this bullet.
If, when a man is cold, you ask how long he should stand by the fire? Surely, till he be thoroughly warm, and made fit for his work. So, christian, thy heart is cold; never a day, no, not the hottest day in summer, but it freezeth there. Now stand at the file of meditation till thou findest thy affections warmed, and thou art made more fit for spiritual service.
A Christian without meditation is like a soldier without arms, or a workman without tools.
The reason we come away so cold from reading the Word is because we do not warm ourselves at the fire of meditation.
A man who does not meditate is like a ship without ballast, and is easily overturned by every gust of temptation.
A Christian enters into meditation as a man enters into the hospital, that he may be healed. Meditation heals the soul of its deadness and earthliness.