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A20631
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Devotions vpon emergent occasions and seuerall steps in my sicknes digested into I. Meditations vpon our humane condition, 2. Expostulations, and debatements with God, 3. Prayers, vpon the seuerall occasions, to Him / by Iohn Donne ...
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Donne, John, 1572-1631.
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1624
(1624)
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STC 7033A; ESTC S1699
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101,106
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641
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sin together Yet O blessed and glorious Trinity O holy whole Colledge and yet but one Phisician if you take this confession into a consultâ—â—â—on my case is not despâ—rate my destructioÌ„ is not decreed If your consultation determin in writing if you refer mee to that which is written you intend my recouery for al the way O my God euer constant to thine owne wayes thou hast proceeded opeÌ„ly intelligâ—bly manifestly by the book From thy first book the book of life neueâ— shut to thee but neuer throughly open to vs froÌ„ thy second book the booke of Nature wher though subobscurely and in shadows thou hast expressed thine own Image froÌ„ thy third booke the Scriptures where thou hadst writteÌ„ all in the Old and then lightedst vs a caÌ„dle to read it by in the New Testament To these thou hadst added the booke of iust and vsefull Lawes established by them to whom thou hast committed thy people To those the Manualls the pocket the bosome books of our own Consciences To â—hose thy partcular books of all our particular sins and to those the Booke with seuen seales which only the Lamb which was slaine was found worthy to opeÌ„ which I hope it shall not disagree with the meaning of thy blessed Spirit to interpreâ—e the promulgation of their pardon and righteousnes who are washed in the blood of that Lambe And if thou refer me to these Bookes to a new reading a new triall by these bookes â— this feuer may be but a burning in the hand and I may be saued thogh not by my book mine own conscience nor by thy other books yet by thy first the book of life thy decree for my election and by thy last the book of the Lamb and the shedding of his blood vpon me If I be stil vnder coÌ„sultation I am not coÌ„demned yet if I be sent to these books I shall not be condem'd at all for though there be somthing written in some of those books particularly in the Scripturâ— which some men turne to poyson yet vpon these consultations these confessions these takings of our particular cases into thy consideration thou intendest all for phisick euen from those Sentences from which a tooâ—late Repenter will sucke desperation he that seeks thee early shall receiue thy morning dew thy seasonable mercy thy forward consolation 9. PRAYER O Eternall and most gracious God who art of so pure eyes as that thou canst not look vpon sinn and we of so vnpure constitutions as that wee can present no obiect but sin and therfore might iustly â—eare that thou wouldst turn thine eyes for euer from vs as though we cannot indure afflictions in our selues yet in thee we canâ— so thogh thou canst not indure sinne in vs yet in â—hy Sonn thou canst and he hath taken vpon him seâ—fe and presented to thee al those sins which might displease thee in vs. There is an Eye in Nature that kills assoon as it sees the eye of a Serpent no eye in Nature that nourishes vs by looking vpon vs But thine Eye O Lord does so Looke therefore vpon me O Lord in this distresse and that will recall mee from the borders of this bodily death Look vpon me and that wil raise me again from that spirituall death in which my parents buried me when they begot mee in sinne and in which I haue pierced euen to the lawes of hell by multiplying such heaps of actuall sins vpon that foundation that root of originall sinn Yet take me again into your Consultation O blessed and glorious Trinitie thogh the Father know that I haue defaced his Image receiued in my Creation though the Son know I haue neglected mine interest in the Redemption yet O blessed spirit as thou art to my ConscieÌ„ce so be to them a witnes that at this minute I accept that which I haue so often so often so rebelliously refused thy blessed inspirations be thou my witnes to them that at more poores then this slacke body sweates teares this sad soule weeps blood and more for the displeasure of my God then for the stripes of his displeasure Take me then O blessed glorious Trinitie into a RecoÌ„sultation and prescribe me any phisick If it bee a long painful holding of this soule in sicknes it is phisick if I may discern thy hand to giue it it is phisick if it be a speedy departing of this Soule if I may discerne thy hand to receiue it 10. Lentè Serpenti satagunt occurrere Morbo They find the Disease to steale on insensibly and endeauour to meet with it so 10. MEDITATION THis is Natures nest of Boxes The Heauens containe the Earth the Earth Cities Cities Men. And all these are Concentrique the common center to them all is decay ruine only that is Ecoentrique which was neuer made only that place or garment rather which we can imagine but not demonstrate That light which is the very emanation of the light of God in which the Saints shall dwell with which the Saints shall be appareld only that bends not to this Center to Ruine that which was not made of Nothing is not threatned with this annihilation All other things are euen Aâ—gels eueÌ„ our soules they moue vpon the same poles they bend to the same Center and if they were not made immortall by preseruation their Nature could not keepe them from sinking to this center Annihilation In all these the frame of the heuens the States vpoÌ„ earth Men in them comprehend all Those are the greatest mischifs which are least discerned the most insensible in their wayes come to bee the most sensible in their ends The Heauens haue had their Dropsie they drownd the world and they shall haue their Feuer and burn the world Of the dropsie the flood the world had a foreknowledge 120 yeares before it came and so some made prouision against it and were sauâ—dâ— the feuer shall break out in an instant consume all The dropsie did no harm to the heauens froÌ„ whence it fell it did not put out those lights it did not quench those heates but the feuer the fire shall burne the furnace it selfe annihilate those heauens that bâ—eath it out Though the Dog-Starre haue a pestilent breath an infectious exhalation yet because we know when it wil rise we cloâ—he our selues wee dieâ— our selues and wee shadow our selues to a sufficient preueÌ„tion but Comets and blazing starres whose effects or significations no man can interrupt or frustrat no man foresaw no Almanack tells vs when a blazing starre will breâ—k out the matter is carried vp in secret no Astrologer tels vs when the effects wil be accomplishd for that 's a secret of a higher spheare then the other and that which is most secret is most dangerous It is so also here in the societies of men in States CommoÌ„wealths Twentie rebellious drums make not so daÌ„gerous a noise as a few whisperers and secret plotters in corners The Canon
the wildernes thy Manâ—a bread so conditiond qualified so as that to euery man Manna tasted like that which that man liked best I humbly beseech thee to make this correction which I acknowledg to be part of my daily bread to tast so to me not as I would but as thou wouldest haue it taste and to conform my tast and make it agreeable to thy willâ— Thou wouldst haue thâ— corrections tast of humâ—â—liation but thou wouldest haue them tast â— consolation too taste oâ— danger but tast of assâ—â—rance too As therefore thou hast imprinted in all thine Elements of which our bodies consist two manifest qualities so that as thy fire dries so it heats too and as thy water moysts so it cooles too so O Lord in these corrections which are the elements of our regeneration by which our soules are made thine imprint thy two qualities those two operations that as they scourge vs they may scourge vs into the way to thee that when they haue shewed vs that we are nothing in our selues they may also shew vs that thou art all things vnto vs. When therfore in this particular circuÌ„stance O Lord but none of thy iudgements are circumstances they are all of the substance of thy good purpose vpon vsâ— wheÌ„ in this particular that he whoÌ„ thou hasâ— sent to assist me desires assistants to him thou hast let mee see in how few houres thou cansâ— throw me beyond the helpe of man let me by the same light see that no vehimence of sicknes no tentation of Satan no guiltines of sin no prison of death not this first this sicke bed not the other prison the close and dark graue can remooue me from the determined and good purpose which thoâ— sealed concerning mee Let me think no degree of this thy correction casuall or without signification but yet when I haue read it in that language as it is a correction let me translate it into another and read it as a mercy and which of these is the Originall and which is the Translation whether thy Mercy or thy Correction werâ— thy primary and original inteÌ„tion in this sicknes I cannot conclude though death concludâ— me for as it must necessarily appeare to bee â— correction so I can hauâ— no greater argument oâ— thy mercy then to die iâ— thee and by that death to bee vnited to him who died for me 8. Et Rex ipse suum mittit The King sends his owne Phisician 8. MEDITATION STil when we return to that Meditation that Man is a World we find new discoueries Let him be a world and him self will be the land and misery the sea His misery for misery is his his own of the happinesses euen of this world hâ—e is but tenant but of misery the free-holder of happines hee is but the farmer but the vsufructuary but of misery the Lord the proprietary his misery as the sea swells aboue all the hilles and reaches to the remotest parts of this earth Man who of himselfe is buâ— dust and coagulaâ—ed and kneaded into earth by teares his maâ—teâ— is â—arth his forme misery In this world that is Mankinde the highest ground the emineÌ„test hils are kings and haue they line and lead enough to fadome this sea and say My misery is but this deepe Scarce any misery equal to sicknesse and they are subiect to that equally with their lowest subiect A glasse is not the lesse brittle because a Kings face is represented in it nor a King the lesse brittle because God is represented in him They haue Phisicians continually about them therfore sicknesses or the worst of sicknesses continuall feare of it Are they gods He that calld them so cannot flatter They are Gods but sickâ— gods and God is presented to vs vnder many human affections as faâ— as infirmities God is called angry and sorry and weary and heauy buâ— neuer a sicke God for then hee might die like men as our gods do The worst that they could say in reproch scornâ— of the gods of the HeatheÌ„ was that perchance they were asleepe but Gods that are so sicke as that they cannot sleepe are in an infirmer condition A God and need a Phisician A Iupiter need an Aesulapius that must haue Rhâ—ubarbe to purge his Choller lest he be too angry and Agarick to purge his sâ—â—gme lest he be too drowsie that as Tertullian saies of the Aegyptian gods plants and herbes That God was beholden to Man for growing in his garden so wee must say of these godsâ— Their eternity an eternity of threescore ten yeares is in the Apothecaryes shop and not in the Metaphoricall Deity But their Deitye is betten expressed in their humility then in their â—eighth when abounding and ouerflowing as God in means of doing good they descend as God to a communication of their abundaÌ„ces with men according to their necessities then they are Gods No man is well that vnderstands not that values not his being well that hath not a cheerefulnesse and a ioy in it and whosoeuer hath this Ioy hath a desire to communicate to propagate that which occasions his happinesse and his Ioy to others for euery man loues witnesses of his happinesse and the best witnesses are experimentall witnesses they who haue tasted of that in themselues which makes vs happie It consummateâ— therefore it perfits the happinesse of Kings to confer to transfer honor and riches and as they can health vpon those that need them .8 EXPOSTVLATION MY God may God I haue a warning from the Wise man thaâ— when a rich man speaketh euery man holdeth his tongâ— and looke what hee saith they extoll it to the clouds but if a poore man speake they say what fellowe is this And if hee stumble they will help to ouerthrow him Therefore may my words be vnderualued and my errors aggrauated if I offer to speak of Kings but not by thee O my God because I speak of them as they are in thee of thee as thou art in them Certainly those men prepare a way of speaking negligently or irreuerently of thee that giue themselues that liberty in speaking of thy Vice-gerents Kings for thou who gauest Augustus the Empire gauest it to Nero to and as Vespasian had it from thee so had Iulian Though Kings deface in themselues thy first image in their owne soule thou giuest no man leaue to deface thy second Image imprinted indelibly in their power But thou knowest O God that if I should be slacke in celebrating thy mercies to mee exhibited by that royall Instrumentâ— my Souâ—raigne to many other faults that touch vpon Allegiance I should add the worst of all Ingratitude which constiâ—utes an il man faults which are defects in any particular sunction are not so great as those that destroy our humanitie â— It is not so ill to bee an ill subiect as to be an ill man â— for he hath an vniuersall illnesse ready to blowâ— and powre out it selfe into any