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. Socios sibi iungier instat. The Phisician desires to haue others ioyned with him.

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.

7. EXPOSTVLATION.

MY God, my God, thy blessed Seruant Au∣gustine begg'd of thee,

that Moses might come and tell him what he•• meant by some place of Genesis: May I ha•••• leaue to aske of th•• Spirit, that writ th•• Booke, why when D••••uid expected newes fi•••• Ioabs armie, and that th•• Watchman tolde him that hee sawe a man ru••••ning alone, Dauid conclu••ded out of that circum∣stance, That if hee ca•••• alone, hee brought 〈◊〉〈◊〉 newes? I see the Gra••••mar, the word signifie so, and is so euer accep••ted,

Good newes; but I see not the Logique, nor the Rhetorique, how Dauid would prooue, or per∣swade that his newes was good, because hee was alone, except a grea∣ter cōpany might haue made great impressions of danger, by implo∣ring, and importuning present supplies. How∣soeuer that bee, I am sure, that that which thy Apostle sayes to Ti∣mothy, Onely Luke is with me, Luke, and no body but Luke•• hath a taste of

cōplaint, & sorrow in it•• Though Luke want no testimony of abilitie, o•• forwardnes, of constancie, & perseuerance, in assist∣ing that great building which S. Paul laboured in, yet S. Paul is affected with that, that ther was none but Luke, to assist•• We take S. Luke to haue bin a Phisician, & it ad∣mits the application the better, that in the pre∣sence of one good Phi∣sician, we may bee glad of more. It was not on∣ly a ciuill spirit of poli∣cy,

or order that moued Moses father in law, to perswade him to diuide ••he burden of Gouern∣mēt, & Iudicature, with others, & take others to his assistance, but it was ••lso thy immediat spirit O my God, that mou'd Moses to present vnto ••hee 70 of the Elders of Israel, to receiue of that spirit, which was vpon Moses onely before, such •• portion as might ease ••im in the gouernmēt of that people; though Moses alone had in∣dowments

aboue all thou gauest him othe•• assistants. I consider th•• plentifull goodnesse, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 my God, in employing Angels, more then on•• in so many of thy re∣markable workes. O•• thy Sonne, thou saist, I•• all the Angels of God w••••••ship him; If that bee i•• Heauen, vpon Earth, h•••• sayes that hee could co••••maund twelue legions 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Angels; And when H••••uen, and Earth shall b•• all one, at the last day•• Thy Sonne, O God, the S••••

of Man, shall come in his glory, and all the holy An∣gels with him. The An∣gels that celebrated his birth to the Shepheards, the Angels that celebra∣ted his second birth, his Resurrection to the Ma∣ries, were in the plurall, Angells associated with Angels. In Iacobs ladder, they which ascended and descended, & maintain'd the trade between Hea∣uen and Earth, between thee and vs, they who haue the Commission, and charge to guide vs in

all our wayes, they wh•••• hastned Lot, and in him•• vs, from places of dan∣ger, and tentation, the•• who are appoynted to in∣struct & gouerne vs in th•• Church heere, they who are sent to punish the dis∣obedient and refractar••••, they that are to be the Mowers, and haruest me••, after we are growne ••p in one field, the church, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the day of Iudgmēt, they that are to carrie o•••• soules whither they ca••••••ed Lazarus, they who at∣tend at the seueral gate••

of the new Ierusalem, to admit vs there; all these, who administer to thy seruants, from the first, to their last, are Angels, Angels in the plurall, in euery seruice, Angels as∣sociated with Angells. The power of a single Angell wee see in that one, who in one night destroyed almost 200. thousand in Sennacheribs army, yet thou often imployest many; as we know the power of sal∣uation is abundantly in any one Euangelist, and

yet thou hast afforded vs foure. Thy Sonne pro••claimes of himselfe, th•• thy Spirit, hath annoynte•• him to preach the Gospel•••• yet he hath giuen othe••s for the perfiting of the S. in the worke of the Mi••••••stery. Thou hast made him Bishop of our soules, but there are others Bi••shops too. Hee gaue the holy Ghost, & others gaue it also. Thy way, O m•• God, (and, O my God, tho•• louest to walk in thine own waies, for they are large) thy way from th••

beginning, is multiplica∣tion of thy helps; and ther∣fore it were a degree of ingratitude, not to accept this mercy of affording me many helpes for my bodily health, as a type and earnest of thy graci∣ous purpose now, and euer, to affoord mee the same assistances. That for thy great Helpe, thy Word, I may seeke that, not frō corners, nor Con¦uenticles, nor schismatical singularities, but frō the assotiation, & commu∣nion of thy Catholique

Church, and those per∣sons, whom thou has•• alwayes furnished th•• Church withall: And that I may associate th•• Word, with thy Sacr••••ment, thy Seale with thy Patent; and in that S••••cramēt associate the sig•••• with the thing signified, the Bread with the Bod•• of thy Sonne, so, as I ma•• be sure to haue receiu•••• both, and to bee ma•••• thereby, (as thy blesse•• seruant Augustine sayes) the Arke, and the Mon••••ment, & the Tombe of th••

most blessed Sonne, that hee, and all the merits of his death, may, by that receiuing, bee buried in me, to my quickning in thi•• world, and my im∣mortall establishing in the next.

7. PRAYER.

O Eternall, and most gracious God, who gauest to thy seruants in the wildernes, thy Man∣••a, bread so conditiond, qualified so, as that, to

euery man, Manna tasted like that, which that man liked best, I humbly be∣seech thee, to make this correction, which I ac∣knowledg 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 con∣form my tast, and make it agreeable to thy will•• Thou wouldst haue th•• corrections tast of hum••••liation, but thou woul¦dest haue them tast •• consolation too; taste o•• danger, but tast of ass••••rance

too. As therefore thou hast imprinted in all thine Elements, of which our bodies con∣sist, two manifest quali∣ties, 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 re∣generation, by which our soules are made thine, imprint thy two quali∣ties, those two operati∣ons, 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 circū∣stance, O Lord (but none of thy iudgements are circumstances; they are all of the substance of thy good purpose vpon vs•• whē in this particular, that he, whō thou has•• sent to assist me, desires assistants to him, thou hast let mee see, in how few houres thou cans••

throw me beyond the helpe of man, let me by the same light see, that no vehimence of sick∣nes, no tentation of Sa∣tan, 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 tho•• sealed concerning mee. Let me think no degree of this thy correction, casuall, or without signi∣fication; but yet when I

haue read it in that lan∣guage, as it is a correcti∣on, let me translate it in∣to another, and read it as a mercy; and which of these is the Originall, and which is the Translati∣on, whether thy Mercy, or thy Correction, wer•• thy primary, and origi∣nal intētion in this sick∣nes, I cannot conclude, though death conclud•• me; for as it must neces∣sarily appeare to bee •• correction, so I can hau•• no greater argument o•• thy mercy, then to die i••

thee, and by that death, to bee vnited to him, who died for me.

Notes

• 2 Sam. 18 25.
• So al, but our Tran∣slation takes it. Euen Burcdorf. & Schind∣ler.
• 2.4.11.
• Exod. 18 13.
• Num. 11 16.
• Heb. 1.6
• Mat. 26.53.
• Mat. 25.31.
• Luc. 21.15.
• Io. 20.12.
• Gen. 28.12.
• Psa. 91.13.
• Gen. 19.15.
• Apo. 1.20.
• Apo. 8.2.
• Mat. 13.39.
• Luc. 16.22.
• Apoc. 21.12.
• 1. Reg. 19.35.
• Luc. 4.18.
• Eph. 4.11.
• 1. Pet 2.25.
• Io. 20.22.