Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Devotion 16
19. Oceano tandem emenso, aspicienda resurgit Terra; vident, iustis, medici, iam cocta mederi se posse, indicijs. At last, the Physitians, after a long and stormie voyage, see land; They hauehave so good signes of the con…oction of the disease, as that they may safely proceed to purge.
19. MEDITATION.
ALl this while the Physitians themselues hauehave beene patients, patiently attending when they should see any land in this Sea, any earth, any cloud, any indication of concoction in these waters. Any disorder of mine, any pretermission of theirs, exalts the d…sease, accelerates the rages of it; no diligence accelerates the concoction, the maturitie of the disease; they must stay till the season of the sicknesse come, and till it be ripened of it selfe, and then they may put to their hand, to gather it, before it fall off, but they cannot hasten the ripening. Why should wee looke for it in a disease, which is the disorder, the discord, the irregularitie, the commotion, and rebellion of the body? It were scarce a disease, if it could bee ordered, and made obedient to our times. Why should wee looke for that in disorder, in a disease, when we cannot hauehave it in Nature, who is so regular, and so pregnant, so forward to bring her worke to perfection, and to light? yet we cannot awake the Iuly-flowers in Ianuarie, nor retard the flowers of the spring to Autumne. We cannot bid the fruits come in May, nor the leaues to sticke on in December. A woman that is weake, cannot put off her ninth monethmonth to a tenth, for her deliuerie, and say shee will stay till shee bee stronger; nor a Queene cannot hasten it to a seuenth, that shee may bee ready for some other pleasure. Nature (if w… looke for durable and vigorous effects) will not admit preuentions, nor anticipations, nor obligations vponupon her; for they are precontracts, and she will bee left to her libertie. Nature would not be spurred, nor forced to mend her pace; nor power, the power of man; greatnesse lou…s not that kinde of violence neither… There are of them that will giuegive … that will doe iustice, that will pardon, but they hauehave their owne seasons for al these, and h… that knowes not them, shall starue before that gift come, and ruine, before the Iustice, and dye before the pardon saue him: some tree beares no fruit, except much dung be laid about it, and Iustice comes not from some, till they bee richly manured: some trees require much visiting, much watring, much labour; and some men giuegive not their fruits but vponupon importunitie; some trees require incision, and pruning, and lopping; some men must bee intimidated and syndicated with Commissions, before they will deliuer the fruits of Iustice; some trees require the early and the often accesse of the Sunne; some men open not, but vponupon the fauours and letters of Court mediation; some trees must bee …ousd and kept within doores; some men locke vp, not onley their liber…litie, but their Iustice, and their compassion, till the sollicitation of a wife, or a sonne, or a friend, or a seruant turne the key. Reward is the season of one man, and importunitie of another; feare the season of one man, and fauour of another; friendship the season of one man, …nd naturall affection of …nother; and hee that knowes not their seasons, nor cannot stay …hem, must lose the …ruits; As Nature will not, so power and greatnesse will not bee put to change their seasons; and shall wee looke for this Indulgence in a disease, or thinke to shake it off before it bee ripe? All this while therefore, we are but vponupon a defen…iue warre, and that is but a doubtfull state: Especially where they who are besieged doe know the best of their defences, and doe not know the worst of their enemies power; when they cannot mend their works within, and the enemie can increase his numbers without … O how many farre more miserable, and farre more wor…hy to be lesse miserable than I, are besieged with this sicknesse, and lacke their Sentinels, their Physitians to watch, and lacke their munition, their cordials to d…f…nd, and perish before …e …nemies weaknesse might inuite them to sally, before the disease shew any declination, or admit any way of working vponupon it selfe? In me the siege is …o farre slackned, as that we may come to fight, and so die in the field, if I die, and not in a prison.
19. EXPOSTVLATION.
MY God, my God, Thou a…t a direct God, may I not say, a literall God, a God that wouldest bee vnderstood literally, and according to the plaine sense of all that thou saiest? But thou art also (Lord I intend it to thy glory, and let no prophane misinterpreter abuse it to thy diminution) thou art a figuratiue, a metaphoricall God too: A God in whose words there is such a height of figures, such voyages, such peregrinations to …e…ch remo…e and precious metaphors, such extentions, such spreadings, such Curtaines of Allegories, such third Heauens of Hyperboles, so harmonious eloquutions, so retired and so reserued expressions, so commanding perswasions, so perswading commandements, such sinewes euen in thy milke, and such things in thy words, as all prophane Authors, seeme of the seed of the Serpent, that creepes, thou art the doue, that flies. O, what words but thine, can expresse the inexpressible texture, and composition of thy word; in which, to one Man, that argument that binds his faith to beleeue that to bee the Word of God, is the reuerent simplicity of the Word, and to another, the maiesty of the Word; and in which two men, equally pious, may meet, and one wonder, that all should not vnderstand it, and the other, as much, that any man should. So, Lord, thou giuest vsus the same Earth, to labour on, and to lie in; a house, and a graue, of the same earth; so Lord, thou giuest vsus the same Word for our satisfaction, and for our Inquisition, for our instruction, and for our Admiration too; for there are places, that thy seruants Hierom and Augustine would scarce beleeue (when they grew warm by mutual letters) of one another, that they vnderstood them, and yet both Hierome and Augustine call vponupon persons, whom they knew to bee farre weaker, than they thought one another (old women & young maids) to read thy Scriptures, without con…ining them, to these or those places. Neither art thou thus a figuratiue, a Metaphoricall God, in thy word only, but in thy workes too. The stile of thy works, the phrase of thine Actions, is Metaphoricall … The institution of thy whole worship in the old Law, was a cōtinuall Allegory; types & figures ouerspread all; and figure… flowed into figures, and powred themselues ou… into farther …igures; Circumcision carried a fig… of Baptisme, & Baptis… carries a figure of that purity, which we shall hauehave in perfection in the new Ierusalem. Neither didst thou speake, and worke in this language, onelyonly in the time of thy Prophets; but since thou spokest in thy Son, it is so too. How often, how much more often doth thy Sonne call himsel…e a way, and a light, and a gate, and a Vine, and bread, than the Sonne of God, or of Man? How much oftner doth he exhibit a Metaphoricall Christ, than a reall, a literall? This hath occasioned thine ancient seruants, whose delight it was to write after thy Copie, to proceede the same way in their expositions of the Scriptures, and in their composing both of publike liturgies, and of priuate prayers to thee, to make their accesses to thee in such a kind of language, as thou wast pleased to speake to them, in a figuratiue, in a Metaphoricall language; in which manner I am bold to call the comfort which I receiue now in this sicknesse, in …he indication of the concoction and maturity therof, in certaine clouds, and residēces, which the Physitians obserue, a discouering of land frō Sea, after a long, and tempestuous voyage. But wherefore, O my God, hast thou presented to vsus, the afflictiōs and calamities of this life, in the name of waters? so often in the name of waters, and deepe waters, and Seas of waters? must we looke to bee drowned? are they bottomlesse, are they boundles? Thats not the dialect of thy langauge; thou hast giuen a Remedy against the deepest water, by water; against the inundation of sinne, by Baptisme; and the first life, that thou gauest to any Creatures, was in waters, therefore …hou do…t not …hr…ten v…, wi…h an irrem…diablenesse, when our affliction is a Sea. It is so, if we consider our selues; so thou callest Gennezareth, which was but a lake, and not salt, a Sea; so thou callest the Mediterranean Sea, still the great Sea; because the inhabitants saw no other Sea; they that dwelt there, thought a Lake, a Sea, and the others thought a little Sea, the greatest, and wee that know not the afflictions of others, call our owne the heauiest. But, O my God, that is truly great, that ouerflowes the chan…ell; that is really a great affliction, which is aboue my strength, but, thou, O God, art my strength, and then what can bee aboue it?Psal. 46.3. Mountaines shake with the swelling of thy Sea, secular, Mountaines, men strong in power, spirituall mountaines, men strong in grace, are shaked with afflictions;Psa. 33.7 but thou laiest vp thy sea in store-houses; euen thy corrections are of thy treasure, and thou wilt not waste thy corrections; when they hauehave done their seruice, to humble thy patient, thou wilt call them in againe; for,Psa. 8.29 thou giuest the Sea thy decree, that the waters should not passe thy Commandement. All our waters shal run into Iordan, Ios. 3.17& thy seruants passed Iordan dry foot; they shall run into the red Sea (the Sea of thy Sons bloud) & the red Sea, that red Sea, drownes none of thine. But,Ecelus. 43.24. they that saile in the Sea, tell of the danger thereof; I that am yet in this affliction, owe thee the glory of speaking of it; But, as the wise man bids me,vers. 27. I say, I may speak much, and come short; wherefore in summe, thou art all. Since thou art so, O my God, and affliction is a Sea, too deepe for vsus, what is our refuge? thine Arke, thy ship. In all other Seas, in all other afflictions, those meanes which thou hast ordained; In this Sea, in Sicknesse, thy Ship is thy Physitian. Sap. 14.3.Thou hast made a way in the Sea, and a safe path in the waters, shewing that thou canst saue from all dangers; yea, though a man went to Sea without art; yet where I finde all that, I finde this added, Neuerthelesse thou woul…est not, that the worke of thy wisdome should be idle. Thou canst saue without meanes; but thou hast told no man that thou wilt: Thou hast told eueryevery man, that thou wilt not. When the Centurion beleeued the Master of the ship more than Saint Paul, Act. 17.11.they were all opened to a great danger; this was a preferring of thy meanes, before thee, the Author of the meanes; but, my God, though thou beest eueryevery where, I hauehave no promise of appearing to me, but in thy ship: Thy blessed Sonne preached out of a Ship: Luc. 5.3.The meanes is preaching, he did that; and the Ship was a type of the Church; hee did it there… Thou gauest S. Paul the liues of all them, Act. 27.24.that saild with him; If they had not beene in the Ship with him, the gift had not extended to them.Mar. 5.2. As soone as thy Son was come out of the ship, immediatly there met him out of the tombes, a man with an vncleane spirit, and no man could hold him, no not with chaines. Thy Sonne needed no vse of meanes; yet there wee apprehend the danger to vsus; if we leaue the ship, the meanes; in this case, the Physitian. But as they are Ships to vsus in those Seas, so is there a Ship to them too, in which they are to stay. GiueGive mee leaue, O my God, to assist my selfe with such a construction of these words of thy seruant Paul, to the Centurion, when the Mariners would hauehave left the Ship, Act. 27.31.Except these abide in the Ship, you cannot bee safe; Except they who are our ships, the Physitians, abide in that which is theirs, and our ship, the truth, and the sincere and religious worship of thee, and thy Gospell, we cannot promise our selues, so good safety; for though we hauehave our ship, the Physitian, he hath not his ship, Religion; And meanes are not meanes, but in their concatenation, as they depend, and are chained together.Iac. 3.4. The ships are great, saies thy Apostle, but a helme turnes them; the men are learned, but their religion turnes their labours to good: And therefore it was a heauy …se, when the third part o… the ships perished:Apo. 8.9. It is a heauy case, where either all Religion, or true Religion should forsake many of these ships, whom thou hast sent to conuey vsus ouer these Seas. But, O my God, my God, since I hauehave my ship, and they theirs, I hauehave them, and they hauehave thee, why are we yet no neerer land? As soone as thy Sonnes Disciple had taken him into the ship, immediatly the ship was at the land, Io. 6.21.whither they went. Why hauehave nor they and I this dispatch? EueryEvery thing is immediatly done, which is done when thou wouldst hauehave it done. Thy purpose terminates eueryevery action, and what was done before that, is vndone yet. Shall that slacken my hope? Thy Prophet from thee, hath forbid it.Lam. 3.26. It is good that a man should both hope, and quietly wait for the saluation of the Lord. Thou puttest off many iudgements, till the last day, many passe this life without any; and shall not I endure the putting off thy mercy for a day? and yet, O my God, thou puttest me not to that; for, the assurance of future mercy, …s present mercy. But what is my assurance now? What is my seale? It is but a cloud; that which my Physitians call a cloud, in that, which giues them their Indication. But a Cloud? Thy great Seale to all the world, the raine-bow, that …ecured the world for euer, from drowning, Exo. 13.21.was but a reflexion vponupon a cloud. A cloud it selfe was a pillar which guided the church, and the glory of God, 16.10.not only was, but appeared in a cloud. Let me returne, O my God, to the consideration of thy seruant Eliahs proceeding,1 Reg. 19.43. in a time of desperate drought; he bids them look towards the Sea; They looke, and …ee nothing. He bids thē againe and againe, seuen times: and at the seuenth time, they saw a little cloud rising out of the Sea; and presently they had their desire of raine. Seuen dayes, O my God, hauehave we looked for this cloud, and now we hauehave it; none of thy Indications are friuolous; thou makest thy signes, seales; and thy Seales, effects; and thy effects, consolation, and restitution, whersoeuer thou maiest receiue glory by that way.
19. PRAYER.
O Eternall and most gracious God, who though thou passedst ouer infinite millions of generations, before thou camest to a Creation of this world, yet when thou beganst, didst neuer intermit that worke, but continuedst day to day, till thou hadst perfited all the worke, and deposed it in the hands and rest of a Sabbath, though thou hauehave beene pleased to glorifie thy selfe in a long exercise of my patience, with an expectation of thy declaration of thy selfe in this my sicknesse, yet since thou hast now of thy goodnesse afforded that, which affords vsus some hope, if that bee still the way of thy glory, proceed in that way, and perfit that worke, and establish me in a Sabbath, and rest in thee, by this thy seale of bodily restitution. Thy Priests came vp to thee, by steps in the Temple; Thy Angels came downe to Iaacob, by steps vponupon the ladder; we finde no staire, by which thou thy selfe camest to Adam in Paradise, nor to Sodome in thine anger; for thou, and thou o…ely art able to doe all at once. But, O Lord, I am not wearie of thy pace, nor wearie of mine owne patience. I prouoke …he… not with a praier, not with a wish, not with a …ope, to more haste than consists with thy purpose, nor looke that any other thing should hauehave entred into thy purpose, but thy glory. To heare thy …steps comming towards mee, is the same comfort, as to see thy face present with mee; whether thou doe the worke of a thousand yeere in a day, or extend the worke of a day, to a thousand yeere, as long as thou workest, it is light, and comfort. Heauen it selfe is but an extention of the same ioy; and an extention of this merciemercy, to proceed at thy leisure, in the way of restitution, is a manifestation of heauen to me here vponupon earth. From that people, to whom thou appearedst in signes, and in Types, the Iewes, thou art departed, because they trusted in them; but from thy Church, to whom thou hast appeared in thy selfe, in thy Sonne, thou wilt neuer depart; because we cannot trust too much in him. Though thou hauehave afforded me these signes of restitution, yet if I confide in them, and beginne to say, all was but a Na…urall accident, and nature begins to discharge her selfe, and sh…e will perfit the whole worke, my hope shall vanish because it is not in thee. If thou shouldest take thy hand vtterly from me, and hauehave nothing to doe with me, Nature alone were able to destroy mee; but if thou withdraw thy helping hand, alas how friuolous are the helps of Nature, how impotent the assistances of Art? As therefore the morning dew, is a pawne of the euening fatnesse, so, O Lord, let this daies comfort be the earnest of to morrowes, so f…rre as may conforme me entirely to thee, to what end, and by what way so…uer thy merciemercy hauehave appointed mee.