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 ...

18. MEDITATION.

THe Bell rings out; the pulse thereof is changed; the tolling was a faint, and intermitting pulse, vpon one side; this stronger, and argues more and better life. Hi••

soule is gone out; and as a Man who had a lease of 1000. yeeres after the expiration of a short one, or an inheritance after the life of a Man in a Consumption, he is now entred into the possessi∣on of his better estate. His soule is gone; whither? Who saw it come in, or who saw it goe out? No body; yet euery body is sure, he had one, and hath none. If I will aske meere Philosophers, what the soule is, I shall finde a∣mongst them, that will

tell me, it is nothing, but the temperament and har∣mony, and iust and equall composition of the Ele∣ments in the body, which produces all those facul∣ties which we ascribe to the soule; and so, in it selfe is nothing, no sepe∣rable substance, that ouer∣liues the body. They see the soule is nothing else in other Crea∣tures, and they affect an impious humilitie, to think as low of Man. But if my soule were no more than the soule of a beast,

I could not thinke so; that soule that can reflect vpon it selfe, consider it selfe, is more than so. If I will aske, not meere Philosophers, but mixt Men, Philosophicall Di∣uines, how the soule, being a separate substance, en∣ters into Man, I shall finde some that will tell me, that it is by genera∣tion, & procreation from parents, because they thinke it hard, to charge th•• soule with the guilti∣nesse of Originall sinne, if the soule were infused

into a body, in which it must necessarily grow foule, and contract origi∣nall sinne, whether it will or no; and I shall finde some that will tell mee, that it is by immediate infusion from God, be∣cause they think it hard, to maintaine an immor∣tality in such a soule, as should be begotten, and deriued with the body frō Mortall parents. If I will aske, not a few men, but almost whole bodies, whole Churches, what becomes of the soules of the righ∣teous,

at the departing thereof from the body, I shall bee told by some, That they attend an expi∣ation, a purification in a place of torment; By some, that they attend the frui∣tion of the sight of God, in a place of rest; but yet, but of expectation; By some, that they passe to an immediate possession of the presence of God. S. Augu∣stine studied the Nature of the soule, as much as any thing, but the salua∣tion of the soule; and he sent an expresse Messen∣ger

to Saint Hierome, to consult of some things concerning the soule: But he satisfies himselfe with this: Let the depar∣ture of my soule to salua∣tion be euident to my faith, and I care the lesse, how darke the entrance of my soule, into my body, bee to my reason. It is the going out, more than the com∣ming in, that concernes vs. This soule, this Bell tells me is gone out; Whi∣ther? Who shall tell mee that? I know not who it is; much lesse what he

was; The condition of the Man, and the course of his life, which should tell mee whither hee is gone, I know not. I was not there, in his sick∣nesse, nor at his death; I saw not his way, nor his end, nor can a••ke them•• who did, thereby to conclude, or argue, whi∣ther he is gone. But yet I haue one neerer mee than all these; mine owne Charity; I aske that; & that tels me, He is gone to euerlasting rest, and ioy, and glory: I owe

him a good opinion; it is but thankfull charity in mee, because I receiued benefit and instruction from him when his Bell told: and I, being made the fitter to pray, by that disposition, wherein I was assisted by his occa∣sion, did pray for him; and I pray not without faith; so I doe charitably, so I do faithfully beleeue, that that soule is gone to euerlasting rest, and ioy, and glory. But for the bo∣dy, How poore a wret∣ched thing is that? wee

cannot expresse it so fast, as it growes worse and worse. That body which scarce three minutes since was such a house, as that that soule, which made but one step from thence to Heauen, was scarse thorowly con∣tent, to leaue that for Heauen: that body hath lost the name of a dwel∣ling house, because none dwels in it, and is ma∣king haste to lose the name of a body, and dis∣solue to putrefaction. Who would not bee af∣fected

to see a cleere & sweet Riuer in the Mor∣ning, grow a kennell of muddy land water by noone, and condemned to the saltnesse of the Sea by night? And how lame a Picture, how faint a representation, is that, of the precipitatiō of mans body to dissolution? Now all the parts built vp, and knit by a louely soule, now but a statue of clay, and now, these limbs melted off, as if that clay were but snow•• and now, the whole house is but a

handfull of sand, so much dust, and but a pecke of Rubbidge, so much bone. If he, who, as this Bell tells mee, is gone now, were some excellent Ar∣ti••icer, who comes to him for a clocke, or for a garment now? or for counsaile, if hee were a Lawyer? If a Magistrate, for iustice? Man before hee hath his immortall soule, hath a soule of sense, and a soule of vegitation before that: This im∣mortall soule did not for∣bid other soules, to be in

vs before, but when this soule departs, it carries all with it; no more ve∣getation, no more sense: such a Mother in law is the Earth•• in respect of our naturall Mother; in her wombe we grew; and when she was deliuered of vs, wee were planted in some place, in some calling in the world; In the wombe of the Earth, wee diminish, and when shee is deliuered of vs, our graue opened for another, wee are not transplanted, but trans∣ported,

our dust blowne away with prophane dust, with euery wind.