A96109:263
The saints delight. To which is annexed a treatise of meditation
The saints delight. To which is annexed a treatise of meditation. / By Thomas Watson, minister of Stephens Walbrook in the city of London. Imprimatur, Edm. Calamy.
London: printed by T.R. & E.M. for Ralph Smith, 1657
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
CHAP. X. An holy persuasive to Meditation.
CHAP. X. An holy perswasive to Meditation.
USE. 3.
I Am in the next place to exhort Christians to this so necessary ⟨p. 204⟩duty of Meditation. If ever there were a duty I would press upon you with more earnestness & zeal, it should be this, because so much of the vitals and spirits of Religion lies in it. The plant may as well bear fruit without watering, the meat may as well nourish without digesting, as we can fructify in holiness without Meditation. God provides the meat, Ministers can but cook and dress it for you, Meditation must make the concoction; for want of this you may cry out as the Prophet, Isa. 24.16. My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me. Oh let me persuade such as fear God, seriously to set upon this duty. If you have formerly neglected it, bewail your neglect, and now begin to make conscience of it: Lock up your selves with God (at least once a day) by holy Meditation ⟨p. 206⟩Ascend this Hill, and when you are gotten to the top of it, you shall see a fair prospect, Christ and heaven before you. Let me put you in mind of that sweet saying of Bernard, *