Kate’s Reviews > God’s Battle Plan for the Mind: The Puritan Practice of Biblical Meditation > Status Update

“It’s one thing in our diet to take a snatch and away, [and] another thing to make a meal, and sit at it on purpose until we have seen all set before us, and we have taken our fill of all. So we must not cast a… glimpse at the truth,… But we must make a meal of musing.”

“Labor to spiritualize earthly things… he that hath learned this mystery is the true spiritual chemist... He hath better than Midas‘s wish; he turns all he touches to better than gold.”

“Occasional meditation brings this advantage to us, the world, which is the house of man, is made the temple of God.”

“No, this is not a mere exercise of the mind and memory about good things, but a working them upon the heart, the impressing of these things on the will and affection; it is not merely speculative, but practical.”

“This means that God‘s people must slow their pace and have time to allow God‘s truth to sink into their thinking…If the meat that thou eateth be not digested, it will do thee no good. You see the necessity of labor to retain the Word, to digest it, to make it thy own, that you may be transformed by it: and as a man’s meat is turned into his substance, so the Word of God being digested will nourish you.”

“Meditation, therefore, must have this attendant of delight, which like a flame, like the chariot of Elijah, carries up the soul in musing into heaven. Siyach then means to lovingly, rehearse, or go over in one’s mind; but, in contrast to Hagar, siyach can be either spoken out loud or said silently in one’s heart.”

“As the heart is, so will be the thoughts.”

“So then a true Christian must endeavor himself to deliver…the millions of God’s mercy to his soul; in secret thoughts, chewing the cud of every circumstance with continual contemplation…God grant we may be as willing to use the means, as we are ready to enjoy the end.”

“Without meditation, truths are devoured, not digested… as it is impossible for a man to be nourished by meat if he lacks digestion and concoction, so it is impossible for a man to be nourished in grace, if he neglect the duty of divine meditation; for divine meditation is the spiritual concoction [mixing] and digestion of all holy things, and all holy duties.”