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 ...

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 mise∣ry,

(for misery is his, his own; of the happinesses euen of this world, h••e is but tenant, but of mi∣sery the free-holder; of happines hee is but the farmer, but the vsufru∣ctuary 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 bu•• dust, and coagula••ed and kneaded into earth; by teares, his ma••te•• is ••arth, his forme, misery. In this

world, that is Mankinde, the highest ground, the eminētest hils, are kings; and haue they line, and lead enough to fadome this sea, and say, My mi∣sery is but this deepe? Scarce any misery equal to sicknesse; and they are subiect to that equally, with their lowest sub∣iect. A glasse is not the lesse brittle, because a Kings face is represented in it, nor a King the lesse brittle, because God is re∣presented in him. They haue Phisicians continu∣ally

about them, & ther∣fore sicknesses, or the worst of sicknesses, con∣tinuall feare of it. Are they gods? He that calld them so, cannot flatter. They are Gods, but sick•• gods; and God is presen∣ted to vs vnder many human affections, as fa•• as infirmities; God is cal∣led angry, and sorry, and weary, and heauy; bu•• neuer a sicke God: for then hee might die like men, as our gods do. The worst that they could say in reproch, & scorn••

of the gods of the Hea∣thē, was, that perchance they were asleepe; but Gods that are so sicke, as that they cannot sleepe; are in an infirmer con∣dition. A God, and need a Phisician? A Iupiter & need an Aesulapius? that must haue Rh••ubarbe to purge his Choller, lest he be too angry, and Aga∣rick to purge his s••••gme, lest he be too drowsie; that as Tertullian saies of the Aegyptian gods, plants and herbes, That God was beholden to Man, for grow∣ing

in his garden, so wee must say of these gods•• Their eternity, (an eter∣nity of threescore & ten yeares) is in the Apothe∣caryes shop, and not in the Metaphoricall Deity. But their Deitye is bet∣ten expressed in their hu∣mility, then in their ••eighth; when aboun∣ding and ouerflowing, as God, in means of do∣ing good, they descend, as God, to a communi∣cation of their abun∣dāces with men, accor∣ding to their necessities,

then they are Gods. No man is well, that vnder∣stands not, that values not his being well; that hath not a cheereful∣nesse, and a ioy in it; and whosoeuer hath this Ioy, hath a desire to communicate, to propagate that, which occasions his happi∣nesse, and his Ioy, to o∣thers; for euery man loues witnesses of his happinesse; and the best witnesses, are ex∣perimentall witnesses; they who haue tasted

of that in themselues, which makes vs hap∣pie: It consummate•• therefore, it perfits the happinesse of Kings, to confer, to transfer, ho∣nor, 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,* 1.1 tha•• when a rich man speaketh, euery man holdeth his tong••

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 aggraua∣ted, 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 li∣berty, in speaking of thy Vice-gerents, Kings:* 1.2 for thou who gauest Augu∣stus the Empire, gauest it to Nero to, and as Vespa∣sian had it from thee, so had Iulian; Though Kings deface in them∣selues 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 cele∣brating thy mercies to

mee exhibited by that royall Instrument•• my Sou••raigne, to many o∣ther faults, that touch vpon Allegiance, I should add the worst of all, In∣gratitude; which consti∣••utes an il man, & faults which are defects in a∣ny particular sunction, are not so great, as those that destroy our humani∣tie•• It is not so ill, to bee an ill subiect, as to be an ill man•• for he hath an v∣niuersall illnesse, ready to blow•• and powre out it selfe into any mold, a∣ny

form, and to spend it selfe in any function. As therfore thy Son did vp∣on the Coyne, I look vp∣on the King, and I ask•• whose image, & whose inscription hee hath; and he hath thine; And I giue vnto thee, that which i•• thine, I recommend his happines to thee, in al•• my sacrifices of thanks, for that which hee en∣ioyes, and in al my prai∣ers, for the continuance and inlargement of thē But let me stop, my G••d, and consider; will no••

this look like a piece of art, & cunning, to con∣uey into the world an opinion, that I were more particularly in his care, then other men? And that heerein, in a a shew of humilitie, and thankefulnesse, I magni∣fie my selfe more then there is cause? But let not that iealousie stopp mee, O God, but let me go forward in cele∣brating thy mercy exhi∣bited by him. This which hee doth now, in assist∣ing so my bodily health,

I know is common to me with many? Many, many•• haue tasted of that expression of his gracio••snes. Where hee ••an giue health by his owne hands, hee doth•• and to more then any of his predecessors haue done: Therefore hath God reserued one diseas•• for him, that hee onely might cure it, though perchance not onely by one Title, and Interest, nor only as one king. To those that need it not, in that kind, and so cannot

haue it by his owne hand, he sends a donatiue of health, in sending his Phisician: The holy King S. Lewis in France, & our Maud is celebrated for that, that persōally they visited Hospitals, & assi∣sted in the Cure, euen of loathsome Diseases. And when that religious Em¦press Placilla, the wife of Theodosius was told, that she diminished her ••elfe to much in those perso∣nal assistances, & might doe enough in sending ••eliefe, shee said, Shee

would send in that capaci∣tie, as Empresse, but shee would go to, in that capaci∣tie, as a Christian, as a fel∣low member of the body o•• thy Son, with them.* 1.3 So thy seruāt Dauid applies him selfe to his people, so he incorporates himselfe in his people, by calling them his brethren, his bones, his flesh; and when they fel vnder thy hand, euen to the pretermit∣ting of himselfe, he pres∣ses vpon thee, by praye•• for them;* 1.4 I haue si••••ned, but these sheepe what

haue they donne? let thine hand I pray thee be against me and against my fathers house. It is kingly to giue;* 1.5 whē Araumah gaue that great, & free present to Dauid, that place, those instrumēts for sacrifice, and the sacrifices them∣selues, it is said there, by thy Spirit, Al these things did Araumah giue, as a King, to the King. To giue is an approaching to the Condition of Kings, but to giue health, an appro∣ching to the King, of Kings, to thee. But this

his assisting to my bodi∣ly health, thou knowest O God, and so doe some others of thine Honora∣ble seruants know, is bu•• the twy-light, of that day, wherein thou•• tho∣row him, hast shind vp∣on mee before; but the Eccho of that voyce, whereby thou, through him, hast spoke to mee before; Then, when he, first of any man con∣ceiu'd a hope, that I might be of some vse in thy Church, and descen∣ded to an intimation, to

a perswasiō, almost to a solicitatiō, that I would embrace that calling. And thou who hadst put that desire into his heart, didst also put into mine, an obedience to it; and I who was sicke before, of a vertiginous giddines, and irresoluti∣on, and almost spent all my time in consulting how I should spend it, was by this man of God, and God of men, put into the poole, and recouerd: when I asked, perchāce, a stone, he gaue me bread,

when I asked, perchāce, a Scorpion, he gaue me a fish; whē I asked a tem∣porall office, hee denied not, refused not that, but let mee see, that hee had rather I took this. These things, thou O God, who forgettest nothing, hast not forgot, though per∣chance, he, because they were benefits, hath; but I am not only a witnesse, but an instance,* 1.6 that ou•• Iehosophat hath a care to ordaine Priests, as well as Iudges: and not only to send Phisicians fo••

temporall, but to bee the Phisician for spirituall health.

8. PRAYER.

O Eternall and most gracious God, who though thou haue reser∣ued thy tresure of perfit ioy, and perfit glory, to be giuen by thine own hands then, whē by see∣ing thee, as thou art in thy selfe, and knowing thee, as we are known, wee shall possesse in an instant, and possesse for

euer, all that can any way cōduce to our hap∣pinesses, yet here also in this world, giuest vs such earnests of that full pay∣ment, as by the value of the earnest, we may giue some estimat of the tre∣sure, humbly, and thāk∣fully I acknowledge, that thy blessed spirit in∣structs mee, to make a differēce of thy blessings in this world, by that difference of the Instru∣ments, by which it hath pleased thee to deriue them vnto me. As we see

thee heere in a glasse, so we receiue frō thee here by reflexion, & by instru∣ments. Euen casual things come from thee; and that which we call Fortune here, hath another name aboue. Nature reaches out her hand, and giues vs corne, and wine, and oyle, and milk, but thou fillest her hand before, and thou openest her hand, that she may rain down her showres vp∣on vs. Industry reaches out her hand to vs, and giues vs fruits of our la∣bor,

for our selues, & our posteritie; but thy hand guides that hand, when it sowes, and when it wa∣ters, and the increase is from thee. Friends reach out their hands, & pre∣fer vs, but thy hand sup∣ports that hād, that sup∣ports vs. Of all these thy instruments haue I recei∣ued thy blessing, O God, but bless thy name most for the greatest; that as a member of the publike, and as a partaker of pri∣uate fauours too, by thy right hand, thy power∣full

hand set, ouer vs, I haue had my portion, not only in the hearing, but in the preaching of thy Gospel. Humbly beseech∣ing thee, that as thou continuest thy wonted goodnes vpon the whol world, by the wonted meanes, & instruments, the same Sun, and Moon, the same Nature, and In∣dustry, so to continue the same blessings vpon this State, and this Church by the same hand, so long, as that thy Son when he comes in the clouds, may

find him, or his Son, or his sonnes sonnes ready to giue an account, & able to stand in that iudgmēt, for their faithfull Stew∣ardship, and dispensation of thy talēts so abūdant∣ly cōmitted to them; & be to him, O God, in all distēpers of his body, in all anxieties of spirit, in all holy sadnesses of soule, such a Phisician in thy proportion, who art the greatest in heauen, as hee hath bin in soule, & body to me, in his proportiō, who is the greatst vpon earth.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Ecclus. 13.23.
• * 1.2

  Augus∣tus,
• * 1.3

  2 Sam. 19.12.
• * 1.4

  2 Sam. 24.••••.
• * 1.5

  v. 17.
• * 1.6

  2 Chro. 14.8.