Psalm 77:12
Meditation is a saint's pastime. It recreates and perfumes the tired spirits. It is a ladder by which the soul climbs to heaven. It is a duty ever at hand (Prov. 6:22), when you are alone, nay, in the dark, when traveling, and so on. On all occasions you may let out your soul in meditation, when other duties cannot be performed. Nay, when you sleep you may be meddling with this duty. For having communion with God in the day, and closing your eyes with some meditation, even your dreams may be of the love of God, and the glory of heaven, as the experiences of the saints can witness.
Meditation brings us to the first degrees of those heavenly joys, and imparts to us some beginnings of the vision and fruition of God. It enables us with Moses to discern, as we are able, some glimpses of God, that our faces shine with purity and divine splendor. By this we are ravished with Paul, and are caught up into paradise, and in the twinkling of an eye are driven (as in a fiery chariot) into heaven. By this with holy Stephen we see the heavens opened, and Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. Indeed admirable are the effects of divine meditation.
It confirms our knowledge (Ps. 119:99). It strengthens our memory (Ps. 63:6). It enflames our love (Ps. 119:97). It cherishes time with God (Ps. 119:148). It maintains a true and childlike fear of God (Ps. 4:4). It hushes and quiets the soul in afflictions (Ps. 119:23). It promotes prayer (Ps. 143:5-6). What shall I say? Meditation is the very life of our life, as a heathen could say and see by the light of nature. It is the food of our souls, the fuel of our zeal, the spur of our devotion; the soul that can meditate on God is never less alone than when alone, for its fellowship is then with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
—Robert Dingley
Readings taken from Day by Day with the English Puritans
Meditation is a saint's pastime. It recreates and perfumes the tired spirits. It is a ladder by which the soul climbs to heaven. It is a duty ever at hand (Prov. 6:22), when you are alone, nay, in the dark, when traveling, and so on. On all occasions you may let out your soul in meditation, when other duties cannot be performed. Nay, when you sleep you may be meddling with this duty. For having communion with God in the day, and closing your eyes with some meditation, even your dreams may be of the love of God, and the glory of heaven, as the experiences of the saints can witness.
Meditation brings us to the first degrees of those heavenly joys, and imparts to us some beginnings of the vision and fruition of God. It enables us with Moses to discern, as we are able, some glimpses of God, that our faces shine with purity and divine splendor. By this we are ravished with Paul, and are caught up into paradise, and in the twinkling of an eye are driven (as in a fiery chariot) into heaven. By this with holy Stephen we see the heavens opened, and Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. Indeed admirable are the effects of divine meditation.
It confirms our knowledge (Ps. 119:99). It strengthens our memory (Ps. 63:6). It enflames our love (Ps. 119:97). It cherishes time with God (Ps. 119:148). It maintains a true and childlike fear of God (Ps. 4:4). It hushes and quiets the soul in afflictions (Ps. 119:23). It promotes prayer (Ps. 143:5-6). What shall I say? Meditation is the very life of our life, as a heathen could say and see by the light of nature. It is the food of our souls, the fuel of our zeal, the spur of our devotion; the soul that can meditate on God is never less alone than when alone, for its fellowship is then with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
—Robert Dingley
Readings taken from Day by Day with the English Puritans
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