Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Devotion 9
12. — Spirante Columbâ Suppositâ pedibus, Reuocantur ad ima vapores. They apply Pidgeons, to draw the vapors from the Head.
12. MEDITATION.
VVHat will not kill a man, if a vapor will? how great an Elephant, how small a Mouse destroyes? to dye by a bullet is the Souldiers dayly bread; but few men dye by haile-shot: A man is more worth, then to bee sold for single money; a life to be valued aboue a trifle. If this were a violent shaking of the Ayre by Thunder, or by Canon, in that case the Ayre is condensed aboue the thicknesse of water, of water baked into Ice, almost petrified, almost made stone, and no wonder that that kills; but that that which is but a vapor, and a vapor not forced, but breathed, should kill, that our Nourse should ouerlay vsus, and Ayre, that nourishes vsus, should destroy vsus, but that it is a halfe Atheisme to murmure against Nature, who is Gods immediate Commissioner, who would not think himselfe miserable to bee put into the hands of Nature, who does not only set him vp for a marke for others to shoote at, but delights her selfe to blow him vp like a glasse, till shee see him breake, euen with her owne breath? nay if this infectious vapor were sought for, or trauail'd to, as Plinie hunted after the vapor of Aetna and dard, and challenged Death in the forme of a vapor to doe his worst, and felt the worst, he dyed; or if this vapor were met withall in an ambush, and we surprized with it, out of a long shut… Well, or out of a new opened Myne, who wold lament, who would accuse, when we had nothing to accuse, none to lament against, but Fortune, who is lesse then a vapour: But when our selues are the Well, that breaths out this exhalation, the Ouen that spits out this fiery smoke, the Myne that spues out this suffocating, and strangling dampe, who can euer after this, aggrauate his sorrow, by this Circumstance, That it was his Neighbor, his familiar friend, his brother that destroyed him, and destroyed him with a whispering, & a calumniating breath, when wee our selues doe it to our selues by the same meanes, kill our selues with our owne vapors? Or if these occasions of this selfe-destruction, had any contribution from our owne wils, any assistance from our owne intentions, nay frō our owne errors, wee might diuide the rebuke, & chide our selues as much as them. Feuers vponupon wilful distempers of drinke, and surfets, Consumptions vponupon intē perances, & licentiousnes, Madnes vponupon misplacing, or ouer-bending our naturall faculties, proceed from our selues, and so, as that our selues are in the plot, and wee are not onelyonly passiue, but actiue too, to our owne destruction; But what hauehave I done, either to breed, or to breath these vapors? They tell me it is my Melancholy; Did I infuse, did I drinke in Melancholly into my selfe? It is my thoughtfulnesse; was I not made to thinke? It is my study; doth not my Calling call for that… I hauehave don nothing, wilfully, peruersly toward it, yet must suffer in it, die by it; There are too many Examples of men, that hauehave bin their own executioners, and that hauehave made hard shift to bee so; some hauehave alwayes had poyson about them, in a hollow ring vpō their finger, and some in their Pen that they vsed to write with: some hauehave beat out their braines at the wal of their prison, and some hauehave eate the fire out of their chimneys:Coma, latro. in Val. Max. and one is said to hauehave come neerer our case then so, to hauehave strāgled himself, though his hands were bound, by crushing his throat between his knees; But I doe nothing vponupon my selfe, and yet am mine owne Executioner. And we hauehave heard of death, vponupon small occasions, and by scornefull instruments; a pinne, a combe, a haire, pulled, hath gangred, & killd; But when I hauehave said, a vapour, if I were asked again, what is a vapour, I could not tell, it is so insensible a thing; so neere nothing is that that red…ces vsus to nothing. But extend this vapour, rarifie it; from so narow a roome, as our Naturall bodies, to any Politike body, to a State. That which is fume in vsus, is in a State, Rumor, and these vapours in vsus, which wee consider here pestilent, and infectious fumes, are in a State infectious rumors, detracting and dishonourable Calumnies, Libels. The Heart in that body is the King; and the Braine, his Councell; and the whole Magistracie, that ties all toge…her, is the Sinewes, which proceed from thence; and the life of all is Honour, and iust respect, and due reuerence; and therfore, when these vapors, these venimous rumors, are directed against these Noble parts, the whole body suf…ers. But yet for all their priuiledges, they are not priuiledged from our misery; that as the vapours most pernitious to vsus, arise in our owne bodies, so doe the most dishonorable rumours, and those that wound a State most, arise at home. What ill ayre, that I could hauehave met in the street, what channell, what shambles, what dunghill, what vault, could hauehave hurt mee so much, as these home-bredd vapours? What fugitiue, what Almes-man of any forraine State, can doe so much harme, as a Detracter, a Libeller, a scornefull Iester at home? For, as they that write of Poysons, and of creatures naturally disposed to the ruine of Man, do as well mention the Flea, as the Viper, because the Flea, Ardionus.though hee kill none, hee does all the harme hee can, so euen these libellous and licentious Iesters, vtter the venim they hauehave, though sometimes vertue, and alwaies power, be a good Pigeon to draw this vapor from the Head, and from doing any deadly harme there.
12. EXPOSTVLATION.
MY God, my God, as thy seruant Iames, when he asks that questiō, what is your life, prouides me my answere,4.14. It is euen a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, & then vanisheth away, so if he did aske me what is your death, I am prouided of my answere, It is a vapor too; And why should it not be all one to mee, whether I liue, or die, if life, and death be all one, both a vapor. Thou ha…t made vapor so indifferent a thing, as that thy Blessings, and thy Iudgements are equally expressed by it, and is made by thee the Hierogliphique of both. Why should not that bee alwaies good, by which thou hast declared thy plentifull goodnes to vsus?Gen. 2.6. A vapor went vp from the Earth, and watred the whole face of the ground, And that by which thou hast imputed a goodnes to vsus, and wherein thou hast accepted our seruice to thee, sacrifices; for Sacrifices, were vapors, Leuit. 16 23.And in th…m it is said, that a thicke cloude of inc…nce went vp to thee. Ezech. 8.11.So it is of that, wherein thou comst to vsus, the dew of Heauen, And of that wherein we come to thee… both are vapors; And hee, in whom we hauehave, and are all that we are or hauehave, tēporally, or spiritually, thy blessed Son, in the persō of wisedome, is called so to; she is (that is he is) the vapor of the power of God, Sap. 7.24.and the pure influence frō the glory of the Almighty. Hast thou, Thou, O my God, perfumed vapor, with thine own breath, with so many sweet acceptations, in thine own word, and shall this vapor receiue an ill, and infectious sense? It must; for, since we hauehave displeased thee, with that which is but vapor, (for what is sinne, but a vapor, but a smoke, though such a smoke, as takes away our sight, and disables vsus from seeing our danger) it is iust, that thou punish vsus with vapo…s to For so thou dost, as the Wiseman tels vsus, Thou canst punish vsus by those things, wherein wee offend thee; as he hath expressed it there, B… beasts newly created, breathing vapors. Sap. 11.18.Therefore that Commination of …hine, by thy Prophet, Ioel. 2.30.I will shew wonders in the heauen, and in the Earth, bloud and fire, and pillars of smoke … Act. 2.19.thine Apostle, who knewe thy meaning best, calls vapors of smoke. Psa. 78.8.One Prophe… presents thee in thy terriblenesse, so, There went out a smoke at his Nostrils, and another, the effect of thine anger so,Esa. 6.4. The house was filled with smoake; And hee that continues his Prophesie, as long as the world can continue, describes the miseries of the latter times so, Out of the bottomlesse pit arose a smoke, Apo. 9.2.that darkened the Sunne, and out of that smoke came Locusts, who had the power of Scorpions. Now all smokes begin in fire, & all these will end so too: The smoke of sin, and of thy wrath, will end in the fire of hell. But hast thou afforded vsus no means to euaporate these smokes, to withdraw these vapors? When thine Angels fell from heauen, thou tookst into thy care, the reparatiō of that place, & didst it, by assuming, by drawing vsus thither… when we fel from thee here, in this world, thou tookst into thy care the reparation of this place too, and didst it by assuming vsus another way, by descending down to assume our nature, in thy Son. So that though our last act be an ascending to glory, (we shall ascend to the place of Angels) yet our first act is to goe the way of thy Sonn, descending, and the way of thy blessed spirit too, who descended in the Doue. Therefore hast thou bin pleased to afford vsus this remedy in Nature, by this application of a Doue, to our lower parts, to make these vapors in our bodies, to descend, and to make that a type to vsus, that by the visitation of thy Spirit, the vapors o… sin shall descend, & we tread them vnderunder our feet. At the baptisme of thy Son, the Doue descended, & at the exalting of thine Apostles to preach, the same spirit descēded. Let vsus draw down the vapors of our own pride, our own wits, our own wils, our own inuētions, to the simplicitie of thy Sacraments, & the obedience of thy word, and these Doues, thus applied, shall make vsus liue.
12. PRAYER.
O Eternall and most gracious God, who though thou hauehave suffred vsus to destroy our selues, & hast not giuen vsus the power of reparation in our s…lues, hast yet afforded vsus such meanes of reparation, as may easily, and familiarly be compassed by vsus, prosper I humbly beseech thee this means of bodily assistance in this thy ordinary creature, and prosper thy meanes of spirituall assistance in thy holy ordinances. And as thou hast caried this thy creature the Doue, through all thy wayes, through Nature, and made it naturally proper to conduce medicinally to our bodily health, Through the law, and made it a sacrifice for sinne there, and through the Gospel, and made it, & thy spirit in it, a witnes of thy sonnes baptisme there, so carry it, and the qualities of it home to my soule, and imprint there that simplici…y, that mildnesse, that harmelesnesse, which thou hast imprinted by Nature in this Creature. That so all vapours of all disobedience to thee, being subdued vnderunder my feete, I may in the power, and triumphe of thy sonne, treade victoriously vponupon my graue, and trample vponupon the Lyon, and Dragon, Psa. 91.13.that lye vnderunder it, to deuoure me. Thou O Lord by the Prophet callest the Doue, Eze. 7.16the Doue of the Valleys, but promisest that the Doue of the Valleyes shall bee vponupon the Mountaine: As thou hast layed mee low, in this Valley of sickenesse, so low, as that I am made fit for that question, asked in the field of bones,37.3. Sonne of Man, can these bones liue, so, in thy good time, carry me vp to these Mountaynes, of which, euen in this Valley, thou affordest mee a prospect, the Mountain where thou dwellest, the holy Hill, vntounto which none can ascend but hee that hath cleane hands, which none can hauehave, but by that one and that strong way, of making them cleane, in the blood of thy Sonne Christ Iesus. Amen.