A77360:754
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.
6. As Meditation is a great friend to Prayer, and to other Duties; so it is a help unto growth in grace, and the Knowledge of Christ.
A help to grow: The more we meditate on what we read and hear, the more we grow. And what's the reason, that men grow no more after all that they have heard and read, but because they meditate no more. The best Scholar Reads and Meditates, and Meditates and Reads. And the best Christian reads and meditates, and hears and meditates. The growing Christian doth. Suppose now you have a load of Dung, or Marl, to lay upon the ground, you lay it ⟨p. 424⟩upon the ground, to make it fat and fruitful; but if it be laid upon the ground and not spread, will it make the grass or the corn grow; no, it will hinder the growth of the grass: The spreading of it makes the grass grow: So now, come and lay down a load of Truth upon a poor Soul, and let it lye unspread, it rather hinders his growth; but the Hand of Meditation spreads it. And, I say, What is the reason that s men grow no more, but because it may be Sermon, or Truths, like loads, are laid down upon the Soul, but no spreading by the Hand of Meditation.
7. As Meditation-work is a great friend to growth in grace; so thereby also your hearts shall be kept savoury and spiritual in the midst of all your outward and worldly Employments. Oh, saith one, that my heart were but more savoury and spiritual in all my outward Employments, and in my Calling. Why, Meditation carries a Still up and down in the soul, whereby it doth extract and distil the Virtue and the Juice of all the leaves of Providence, that it meets with in the Calling. You see how it is with a Cow, or with a Sheep, though the grass that the Cow or the Sheep eats be green; yet by Concoction, and digesting of it, it turns white, and turns into milk: so now, though that which you read, that which you meet withal in your callings be but ordinarily as the common grass, yet if you can digest it, it will be milk unto you. And how are these things digested, but by Meditation?