Meditation: Chief Among Duties
Puritan: Thomas Manton
Source: Sermons on Genesis 24:63
Originally Delivered: 1640s, England
The Lord’s Day: August 2, 2026
“Meditation is the duty or exercise of religion whereby the mind is applied to the serious and solemn contemplation of spiritual things for practical uses and purposes. The thoughts are the noblest offspring of the soul, and their solemn consecration is fit for God. Meditation is a pure and rational converse with God; it is the flower and height of consecrated reason. It is a necessary duty, without which all graces (faith, hope, and love) wither. Faith will starve unless it is fed by continual meditation on God’s promises.
Meditation is a middle duty between reading or hearing God’s Word and praying. The Word feeds meditation, and meditation feeds prayer. These duties must always go hand in hand; meditation must always follow the hearing or reading of the Word, and it must always precede prayer. Why?
First, it is unfruitful to hear the Word without meditating on it. We may hear and hear, but it is like putting our belongings in a bag filled with holes. “He is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was” (James 1:23-24). We never discern the beauty, luster, and order of biblical truths until we meditate on them. Knowledge floats in the brain until it is pressed on the affections by deliberate thoughts.
Second, it is dangerous to meditate without hearing the Word. People will soon deceive themselves by their own thoughts. Fanatical spirits, who neglect the hearing of God’s Word, claim to have dreams and revelations. People will be vain in their imaginations unless their thoughts are corrected by an external light. They will be “dreamers” (Jude 8).
Third, it is rashness to pray without meditating on God’s Word. What we take in by means of the Word we digest by meditation and express by prayer. These three duties must be so ordered that none of them usurps the others. People are dry and barren in their prayers for lack of exercising themselves on holy thoughts. It is notable that, in Scripture, prayer is often called meditation because it is the product of it. “Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation” (Ps. 5:1). This implies that David’s prayer was the expression of his deliberate thoughts (Ps. 19:14). Prayer is the vent of the thoughts.
We call to remembrance subjects that are of useful considerations: God, that we may fear Him; sin, that we may abhor it; the works of God, that we may glorify Him; and so on. “My mouth shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall give understanding” (Ps. 49:3). The end of such meditation is not to fill the head with notions, but to improve the heart. It is the mother and nurse of godliness because it assists the work of grace on the understanding, affections, and life.
We do not distinctly discern the worth and excellence of Christianity until we come to meditate on it.”