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 ...

2. Prayer.

O Most gracious God, who pursuest and perfitest thine own pur∣poses, and dost not only remember mee by the first accesses of this sick∣nes, that I must die, but informe me by this fur∣ther proceeding therin, that I may die now,

who hast not only wa∣ked mee with the first, but cald me vp, by cast∣ing me further downe, and clothd me with thy selfe, by stripping me of my selfe, and by dulling my bodily senses, to the meats, and eases of this world, hast whet, and sharpned my spirituall senses, to the apprehen∣sion of thee, by what steps & degrees soeuer it shal please thee to go, in the dissolution of this body, hasten O Lord that pace, and multiply O my

God those degrees, in the exaltation of my Soule, toward thee now, & to thee then. My tast is not gone away, but gone vp to sit at Dauids table, To tast,* 1.1 & see, that the Lord is good: My stomach is not gone, but gone vp, so far vpwards toward the Supper of the Lamb, with thy Saints in heauen, as to the Table, to the Cōmuni∣on of thy Saints heere in earth: my knees are weak but weak therfore that I should easily fall to, and fix my selfe long

vpon my deuotions to thee.* 1.2 A sound heart is the life of the flesh; & a heart visited by thee, and dire∣cted to thee, by that vi∣sitation is a sound hart. There is no soundnesse in my flesh,* 1.3 because of thin•• anger. Interpret thin•• owne worke, and call this sicknes, correction and not anger, & there is soundnes in my flesh•• There is no rest in my bones,* 1.4 because of my sinne; transfer••e my sinnes, with which thou ar•• so displeased, vpon him,

with whome thou art so well pleased, Christ Iesus, and there will be rest in my bones: And, O my God, who madest thy selfe a Light in a Bush, in the middest of these brambles, & thornes of a sharpe sicknesse, ap∣peare vnto me so, that I may see thee, and know thee to be my God, ap∣plying thy selfe to me, euen in these sharp, and thorny passages. Doe this, O Lord, for his sake, who was not the lesse, the King o•• Heauen, for

thy suffering him to be crowned with thornes, in this world.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Psa. 34.8
• * 1.2

  Prou. 14.30.
• * 1.3

  Psa. 38.3
• * 1.4

  Ibid.