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Christ and the covenant the work and way of meditation
Christ and the covenant the work and way of meditation. : Gods return to the soul, or nation; together with his preventing mercy. : Delivered in ten sermons, (viz.) 1. Christs personal excellencies, the object of our love. 2. Christ crucified, the object of our faith. 3. The new covenant of grace opened. 4. Christ the mediator of the new covenant. 5. The way and spirit of the new covenant, or New Testament. 6. The blood of sprinkling. 7. The sweetness and profitableness of divine meditation. 8. The work and way of this meditation. 9. Gods return to the soul and nation. 10. Preventing mercy. / By W.B.
London: printed for N. Ranew, 1667
Sermons › Sermon 7: The Sweetness and Profitableness of Divine Meditation. SERM. VII.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Meditation is the work of the whole soul: The Mind acts, and the Memory acts, and the Affections act; Let the Words of my mouth, and the Meditations of my heart: It is an intense and a vehement application of the soul unto truth.
But thirdly, There must be also a Fixation of the soul upon the thing: It is not every slight and transient thought, that makes Meditation; My meditation shall be of thee, all the d•y, Psal. 119. 'Tis, Actio ⟨p. 414⟩cunctabunda, saith Alvares. A man may think on God every day, and meditate on God no day: There must be a fixation of the soul upon some truth; a dwelling and fixing of the soul, upon some thing.
But then, This must be in reference to ones own profit and benefit. Though I do think, and think much of sin, if I do not think thereof to leave it, it is not Meditation.— Though I think on the life and the death of Christ, if it be not to conform unto him, these thoughts will not amount to Meditation.— Though I think on the love and goodness of God, yet if it be not to get my heart inflamed with love thereby, it will not amount to Meditation.
But then, This must be in reference to ones own profit and benefit. Though I do think, and think much of sin, if I do not think thereof to leave it, it is not Meditation.— Though I think on the life and the death of Christ, if it be not to conform unto him, these thoughts will not amount to Meditation.— Though I think on the love and goodness of God, yet if it be not to get my heart inflam'd with love thereby, it will not amount to Meditation.