Thomas Watson on meditation

I was re-reading some notes I made on Heaven Taken By Storm by puritan Thomas Watson. Like many puritan writers, Watson presents his ideas as an argument that is logical and meticulous. In the section I share today, Watson is discussing meditation. I have broken down his argument into point-form. I found it quite interesting. The topic is meditation.

1. Meditation – “Hearing begets knowledge, but meditation begets devotion.” “Many say they cannot meditate, because they lack memory; but is it not rather because they lack affection?”
   
   
   1. Meditation is:
      1. Retiring from the world
      2. Serious thinking upon God
         
         
   2. Reasons we should provoke ourselves to meditate:
      1. Meditation is contrary to flesh and blood
      2. Satan tries to hinder us
         
         
   3. What should we meditate on?
      1. The corruption of your nature
      2. The death and passion of Christ
         1. this produces repentance
         2. this fires our hearts with love to God
      3. evidences for our participation in heaven
         1. Were you convinced of sin?
         2. Have you taken Christ on his terms?
         3. Do you have the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God?
      4. Uncertainty of earthly comforts
         1. This keeps us from being deceived by the world
         2. This moderates our affections for them
         3. This causes us to pursue certainty: grace
      5. God’s severity against sin
      6. Eternal life
         1. It is a spiritual life
         2. It is a glorious life
         3. It will cause us to long for spiritual life
         4. It will comfort us in the shortness of natural life
            
            
   4. What can meditation do?
      1. It makes the Word preached of profit
      2. It quickens the affections
      3. It causes transformation
      4. It produces reformation

These thoughts on meditation are ... well ... worth meditating on!