Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Devotion 17
20. Id…agunt. VponUpon these Indications of digested matter, they proceed to purge.
10. MEDITATION.
THoug… counsel seeme rather to consist of spirituall parts, than action, yet action is the spirit and the soule of counsell. Counsels are not alwaies determined in Resolutions; wee cannot alwaies say, this was concluded; actions are alwaies determined in effects; wee can say this was done. Then hauehave Lawes their reuerence, and their maiestie, when wee see the Iudge vponupon the Bench executing them. Then hauehave counsels of warre their impressions, and their operations, when we see the seale of an Armie set to them. It was an ancient way of celebrating the memorie of such as deserued well of the State, to afford them that kinde of statuarie representation, which was then called Hermes; which was, the head and shoulders of a man, standing vponupon a Cube, but those shoulders without armes and hands. All together it figured a constant supporter of the state, by his counsell: But in this Hierogliphique, which they made without hands, they passe their consideration no farther, but that the Counsellor should bee without hands, so farre, as not to reach out his hand to forraigne tentations of bribes, in matters of Counsell, and, that it was not necessary, that the head should employ his owne hand; that the same men should serue in the execution, which assisted in the Counsell; but that there should not belong hands to eueryevery head, action to eueryevery counsell, was neuer intended, so much as in figure, and representation. For, as matrimonie is scarce to bee called matrimonie, August.where there is a resolution against the fruits of matrimonie, against the hauing of Children, so counsels are not counsels, but illusions, where there is from the beginning no purpose to execute …he determina…ions of …hose counsels. The arts and sciences are most properly referred to the head; that is their proper Element and Spheare; But yet the art of prouing, Logique; and the Art of perswading, Rhetorique, are deduced to the hand, and that expressed by a hand contracted into a sist, and this by a hand enlarged, and expanded; and euermore the power of man, and the power of God himselfe is expressed so… All things are in hi… hand … neither is God so often presented …o vsus, by names that carry our consideratiō vponupon counsell, as vponupon execution of counsell, he is oftner called the Lord of Hosts, …han by all other names, that may be referred to the other signification… Hereby… therefore wee take into our meditation, the slipperie condition of man, whose happinesse, in any kinde, the defect of any one thing, conducing to that happinesse, may ruine; but i… must hauehave all the peeces to make it vp. Without counsell, I had not got thus farre… withou… action and practise, I should goe no farther towards health? But what is …he present nec…ssary action? purging: A withdrawing, a violating of Nature, a farther weakening: O deare price, & O strange way of addition, to doe it by substraction; of restoring Nature, to violate Nature; of prouiding strength, by increasing weaknesse. Was I not sicke before? And is it a question of comfort to be asked now, Did your Physicke make you sicke? Was that it that my Physicke promised, to make me sicke? This is another step, vponupon which we may stand, and see farther into the miserie of man, the time, the season of his Miserie; It must bee done now: O ouer-…nning, ouer-watchfull, ouer-diligent, and ouer-sociable misery of man, that seldome comes alone, but then when it may accompanie other miseries, and so put one another into the higher exaltation, and better …eart. I am ground euen to an attenuation, and must proceed to euacuation, all waies to exinani…ion and annihilation.
20. EXPOSTVLATION.
MY God, my God, the God of Order, but yet not of Ambition, who assignest place to eueryevery one, but not contention for place, when shall it be thy pleasure to put an end to all these quarrels, for spirituall precedences? when shall men leaue their vncharitable disputations, which is to take place, faith or repentance, and which, when we consider faith, and works? The head and the hand too, are required to a perfit naturall man; Counsell and action too, to a perfit ciuill man; saith and works too, to him that is perfi…ly spirituall. But because it is easily said, I beleeue, and because it doth not easily lie in proofe, nor is easily demonstrable by any euidence taken from my heart, (for who sees th…, who f…rches those Rolls… ) whether I doe beleeue, or no, is it not therefore, O my God, that thou dost so frequently, so earnestly, referre vsus to the hand, to the obseruation of actions? There is a little suspition, a little imputation laid vponupon ouer-tedious and dilatorie counsels. Many good occasions slip away in long consultations; and it may be a degree of sloth, to be too long in mending nets, though that must bee done.Eccles. 11.4. He that obserueth the wind, shall not saw, and he that regardeth the …ouds, shall not reape; that is, he that is too dilatorie, too superstitious …n these obseruations, and …tudies but the excuse of his owne idlenesse in …hem; But, that which …he same wise and royall seruant of thine, saies in …n other place, all accept, …nd aske no comment vponupon it,Prou. 10 4. He becommeth poore, that dealeth with a slacke hand… but the hand of the diligent maketh rich; All euill imputed to the absence, all good attributed to the presence of the …and. I know, my God, (and I blesse thy name for knowing it… for all good knowledge is from thee) that thou considerest the heart; but thou takest not off thine eie, till thou come to the hand. Nay, my God, doth not thy spirit intimate, that thou beginnest where wee beginne, (at least, that thou allowest vsus to beginne there) when thou orderest thine owne answer to thine owne question,Psal. 24.3. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Thus, he that hath cleane hands, and a pure heart? Doest …ou not (at least) send …, first to the hand? …nd is not the worke of …heir hands, that decla…tion of their holy zeale, … the present execution …f manifest Idolatrers, …lled a consecration of …emselues, Exod. 31.29.by thy holy …pirit? Their hands are …alled all themselues: for, …uen counsell it selfe goes …nder that name, in thy word, who knowest best …ow to giuegive right names: …ecause the counsell of the …riests assisted Dauid, Saul saies, the hand of the Priest is with Dauid… 1 Sam. 22.17.And that which is often said by Moses, is very often repeated by thy other Prophets, Leuit. 8.36.These and these things, the Lord spake, and the Lord said, and the Lord commanmanded, not by the counsels, not by the voice, but by the hand of Moses, and by the hand of the Prophets: Euermore we are referred for our Euidence, of others, and of our selues, to the hand, to action, to works. There is something before it, beleeuing; and there is some thing after it, suffering; but in the most eminent, and obuious, and conspicuous place, stands doing. Why then, O my God, my bl…ss…d God, in the waies of my …pirituall strength, come …l so slow to action? I was whipped by thy rod, before I came to consultation, to consider my state, and shall I go… no farther? As hee that would describe a circle in paper, if hee hauehave brought that circle within one inch of finishing yet if he remoue his compasse, he cannot make i… vp a perfit circle, excep… he fall to worke againe to finde out the sam… center … so, though setting that foot of my compass… vponupon thee, I hauehave gon… so farre, as to the consideration of my selfe, yet i… I depart from thee, my center, all is vnperfit… This proceeding to action therefore, is a returning to thee, and a working vponupon my selfe by thy Physicke, by thy purgatiue physicke, a free and entire euacuation of my soule by confession. The working of purgatiue physicke, is violent and contrary to Nature. O Lord, I decline not this potion of confession, how euer it may bee contrary to a naturall man. To take phys…cke, Gal…n.and not according to the right method, is dangerous. O Lord, I decline not that method in this physicke, in things that burthen my conscience, to make my confession to him, into whose hands thou hast put th… power of absolution. … know that Physicke may be made so pleasant, Galen.as tha… it may easily be taken; bu… not so pleasant as the ver…tue and nature of the me…dicine bee extinguished I know, I am not sub…mitted to such a confession as is a racke and tor…ture of the Conscience but I know I am not exempt from all. If it were meerely problematicall left meerely indifferent whether we should tak… this Physicke, vse thi… confession, or no, a great Physitian acknowledges this to hauehave beene his practise, Galen.To minister many things, which hee was not sure would doe good but neuer any other thing, but such as hee was sure would doe no harme. The vse of this spirituall Physicke can certainly doe no harme; and the Church hath alwaies thought that it might, and doubtlesse, many humble soules hauehave found, that it hath done them good. I will therefore take the cup of Saluation, Psa. 106 12.and call vponupon thy Name; I will fill this Cup of compunction, as full as I hauehave formerly filled the Cups of wo…ldly confections, that so I may scape the cup of Malediction, and irrecouerable destruction that depends vponupon that. And since thy blessed and glorious Sonne, being offered in the way to his Execution, Mar. 15 23.a Cup of Su… pefaction, to take away the sense of his paine, (a charity afforded to condemned persons ordinarily in those places, and times) refused that ease, and embraced the whole torment, I take not this Cup, but this vessell of mine owne sinnes, into my contemplation, and I powre them out here according to the Motions of thy holy Spirit, and any where, according to the ordinances of thy holy Church.
20. PRAYER.
O Eternall, and most gracious God, who hauing married Man, and Woman together, and made them one flesh, wouldest hauehave them also, to become one soule so, as that they might maintaine a simpathy in their affections, and hauehave a conformity to one another, in the accidents of this world, good or bad, so hauing married this soule and this body in me, I humbly beseech thee, that my soule may looke, and make her vse of thy mercifull proceedings towards my bodily restitution, & goe the same way to a spirituall. I am come by thy goodnesse, to the vse of thine ordinary meanes for my body, to wash away those peccant humors, that endangered it. I hauehave, O Lord, a Riuer in my body, but a Sea in my soule, and a Sea swoln into the depth of a Deluge, aboue the Sea. Thou hast raised vp certaine hils in me heretofore, by which I might hauehave stood safe, from these inundations of sin. Euen our Naturall faculties are a hill, and might preserue vsus from some sinne. Education, study, obseruation, example, are hills too, and might preserue vsus from some. Thy Church, and thy Word, and thy Sacraments, and thine Ordinances, are hills, aboue these; thy Spirit of remorse, and compunction, & repentance for former sin, are hills too; and to the …op of all these hils, thou hast brought mee heretofore; but this Deluge, this inundation, is got aboue all my Hills; and I hauehave sinned and sinned, and multiplied sinne to sinne, after all these thy assistances against sinne, and where is there water enough to wash away this Deluge? There is a red Sea, greater than this Ocean; and there is a little spring, through which this Ocean, may powre it selfe into that red Sea. Let thy Spirit of true contrition, and sorrow passe all my sinnes through these eies, into the wounds of thy Sonne, and I shall be cleane, and my soule so much better purged than my body, as it is ordained for a better, and a longer life.