John Trapp on Psalms 1:2

Verſ. 2. But his delight is in the Law of the Lord] i.e. in the whole Doctrin of the Holy Scriptures, that invariable rule of truth, as Irenaeus rightly calleth it. He findeth reſt no where, Niſi in angulo cum libello, in a Nook with this Book, as Thomas à Kempis was wont to ſay, who alſo with his own hand wrote out the Bible. King Alphonſus read it over fourteen times, together with ſuch Commentaries as thoſe times afforded. Luther ſaid, hee would not live in Paradiſe without the Word,Par. in Epist. ad Ja. N[illegible: 1 letter]wer. Paſtor. Heidelb. as with it he could live well enough in Hell. Magdalen Wife to D. Paraeus, after ſhe was married, and forty years of age, out of love to the Scriptures learnt to read, and took ſuch delight in it, and eſpecially in the Pſalms, that ſhe gat them almoſt all by heart. B[illegible: 1 letter]za being above fourſcore years old, could ſay perfectly by heart any Greek Chap.Act. & Mon. in St. Pauls Epiſtles. Cranmer and Ridley had all the New Teſtament by heart; the former had learnt it in his journey to Rome, the latter in the Walks of Pembrook-Hall in Cambridge.

And in his Law doth he meditate day and night]

Hoc primus repetens opus, hoc poſtremus omittens; Hora Having gathered with the Bees the ſweet of thoſe heavenly flowers, he doth by meditation work his Hony-comb within his Hive; and at this work he is perdius & pernox, till he feel it to become an ingrafted word, yea till he hath turned it in ſuccum & ſanguinem, and is after a ſort transformed into it, 2 Cor. 3.18. The Hebrew word Hagah here ſignifieth both to ſpeak with the mouth, and with the heart, to read, and to meditate; becauſe to read is not to run over a Chapter, as a Childe at School, but to muſe upon the matter, and to make ſome benefit of it. It is ſtoried of Pythagoras, that he lived in a Cave for a whole year together, that being ſequeſtred from the ſociety of men, he might the better meditate upon the abſtruſer parts of Philoſophy; he uſed alſo with a thread to tye the hair of his head to a beam over him, that ſo when he did but nod by reaſon of ſleep, he might be awakened thereby. Is not this check to our oſcitancy and careleſneſe of ſearching the Scriptures, and making them our daily and nightly ſtudy? Hierom exhorted ſome godly women to whom he wrote,Hier. ad E[illegible: 2 letters] De cuſted Virgin. not to lay the Bible out of their hands, until being overcome with ſleep, and not able any longer to hold up their heads, they bowed them down, as it were to ſalute the leaves below them with a kiſs.