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 ...

7. MEDITATION.

THere is more feare, therefore more cause. If the Phisician desire help, the burden grows great: There is a grouth of the Disease then; But ••here must bee an Au∣••umne to; But whether an Autumne of the disease

or mee, it is not my pa•••• to choose: but if it bee of me, it is of both; My disease cannot suruiu•• mee, I may ouer liue i•• Howsoeuer, his desiring of others, argues his ca••••dor, and his ingenuitie; 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the danger be great, he•• iustifies his proceeding•• & he disguises nothing that calls in witnesses•• And if the danger be not great, hee is not a••••bitious, that is so read•• to diuide the thankes and the honour of th•• work, which he beg••••

alone, with others. It diminishes not the dig∣nitie of a Monarch, that hee deriue part of his care vpon others; God hath not made many Suns, but he hath made many bodies, that receiue, and giue light. The Ro∣manes began with one King; they came to two Consuls; they returned in extremities, to one Di∣ctator•• whether in one, or many, the soueraigntie is the same, in all States, and the danger is not the more, and the proui∣dence

is the more, whe•• there are more Phisici∣ans; as the State is the happier, where busines∣ses are carried by more counsels, then can be in one breast, how large soeuer, Dise••ses them∣selues hold Consultations, and conspire how they may multiply, and ioyn with one another, & ex∣alt one anothers force so; and shal we not cal•• Phisicians, to consultati∣ons? Death is in an old mans dore, he appeare•• and tels him so, & dea••••

is at a yong mans backe, and saies nothing•• Age is a sicknesse, and Youth is an ambush, and we need so many Phisicians, as may make vp a Watch, and spie euery inconue∣nience. There is scarce any thing, that hath not killed some body; a haire, a feather hath done it•• Nay, that which is our best Antidote against it, hath donn it; the best Cordiall hath bene deadly poyson; Men haue dyed of Ioy, and allmost for∣bidden their friends to

weep for thē, whē they haue seen thē dye laugh∣ing. Euen that Tiran Dy••••nisius (I thinke the same•• that suffered so much a••••ter) who could not d•••• of that sorrow, of tha•• high fal, from a King t•• a wretched priuate ma•••• dyed of so poore a Ioy, as to be declard by the peo••ple at a Theater, that he•• was a good Poet. We sa•• oftē th••t a Man may li•••• of a litle; but, alas, o•• how much lesse may a Man dye? And therfore the more assistants, th••

better; who comes to a day of hearing, in a caus of any importāce, with one Aduocate? In our Fu∣nerals, we our selfs haue no interest; there wee cannot aduise, we can∣not direct: And though some Nations, (the Egip∣tians in particular) built thēselues better Tombs, then houses, because they were to dwell longer in them; yet, amongst our selues, the greatest Man of Stile, whom we hane had, The Conqueror, was lest, as soone as his soule

left him, not only with∣out persons to assist at his graue, but without a graue. Who will keepe vs then, we know not•• As long as we can, l••t vs admit as much helpe as wee can; Another, and another Phisician, is not another, and another Indication, and Symptom of death, but an other•• and another Assistant, and Proctor of life: No•• doe they so much feed the imagination with apprehension of danger, as the vnderstanding

with comfort; Let not one bring Learning, an∣other Diligence, another Religion, but euery one bring all, and, as many Ingredients enter into a Receit, so may many men make the Receit. But why doe I exercise my Meditation so long vpon this, of hauing plentifull helpe in time of need? Is not my Meditation rather to be enclined another way, to condole, and com∣miserate their distresse, who haue none? How

many are sicker (per¦chance) then I, and laid in their wofull straw at home (if that co••ner be a home) and haue no more hope of helpe, though they die, then of preferment, though they liue? Nor doe no more expect to see a Phisician then, then to bee an Officer after; of whome, the first that takes knowledge, is th•• Sexten that buries them•• who buries them in obliuio•• too? For the•• doe but fill vp the num∣ber

of the dead in the Bill, but we shall neuer heare their Names, till wee reade them in the Booke of life, with our owne. How many are sicker (perchance) then I, and thrown into Ho∣spitals, where, (as a fish left vpon the Sand, must stay the tide) they must stay the Phisicians houre of visiting, and then can bee but visited? How many are sicker (perchaunce) then all we, and haue not this Hospitall to couer them,

not this straw, to lie in, to die in, but haue thei•• Graue-stone vnder them and breathe out thei•• soules in the eares, and in the eies of passengers, harder then their bed, the flint of the stre••t•• That taste of no part of our Phisick, but a sparing dyet; to whom ordinary porridge would bee Iu∣lip enough, the refuse of our seruants, Bezar e∣nough, and the off scou¦••ing of our Kitchin ta∣bles, Cordiall enough. O my soule, when thou art

not enough awake, to blesse thy God enough for his plentifull mer∣cy, in affoording thee many Helpers, remem∣b••r how many lacke them, and helpe them to them, or to those other things, which they lacke as much as them.