Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Devotion 18
21 — Atque annuit Ille, Qui, per eos, clamat, Linquas iam, Lazare, lectum. God prospers their practise, and he, by them, calls Lazarus out of his tombe, mee out of my bed.
21. MEDITATION.
IF man had beene left alone in this world, at first, shall I thinke, that he would not hauehave fallen? If there had beene no Woman, would not Man hauehave serued, to hauehave beene his owne Tempter? When I see him now, subiect to infinite weakenesses, fall into infinite sinne, without any forraine tentations, shall I thinke, hee would hauehave had none, if hee had beene alone? GOD saw that Man needed a Helper, if hee should bee well; but to make Woman ill, the Deuill saw, that there needed no third. When God, and wee were alone, in Adam, that was not enough; when the Deuill and wee were alone, in Eue, it was enough… O what a Giant is Man, when hee fights against himselfe, and what a dwarfe, when hee needs, or exercises his owne assistance for himselfe? I cannot rise out of my bed, till the Physitian enable mee, nay I cannot tel, that I am able to rise, till hee tell me so. I doe nothing, I know nothing of my selfe: how little, and how impotent a pe…ce of the world, is any Man alone? and how much lesse a peece of himselfe is that Man? So little, as that when it falls out, (as it falls out in some cases) that more misery, and more oppression, would bee an ease to a man, he cannot giuegive himselfe that miserable addition, of more misery … A man that is pressed to death, and might be eased by more weights, cannot lay those more weights vponupon himselfe: Hee can sinne alone, and suffer alone, but not repent, not bee absolued, without another. Another tels mee, I may rise; and I doe so. But is eueryevery raising a preferment? or is eueryevery present preferment a station? I am readier to fall to the Earth now I am vp, than I was wh…n I lay in the bed: O peruerse way, irregular motion of Man; euen rising it selfe is the way to Ruine. How many men are raised, and then doe not fill the place they are raised to? No corner of any place can bee empty; there can be no vacuity; If that Man doe not fill the place, other men will; complaints of his insufficiency will fill it; Nay, such an abhorring is there in Nature, of vacuity, that if there be but an imagination of not filling, in any man, that which is but imagination neither, will …ill it, that is, rumor and voice, and it will be giuen …ut, (vponupon no ground, but Imagination, and no man knowes, whose imagination) that hee is corrupt in his place, or insufficient in his place, and another prepared to succeed him in his place. A man rises, sometimes, and stands not, because hee doth not, or is not beleeued to fill his place; and sometimes he stands not, because hee ouer-fills his place: Hee may bring so much vertue, so much Iustice, so much integrity to the place, as shall spoile the place, burthen the place; his integrity may bee a Libell vponupon his Predecessor, and cast an infamy vponupon him, and a burden vponupon his successor, to proceede by example, and to bring the place it selfe, to an vnderunder-value, and the market to an vncertainty. I am vp, and I seeme to stand, and I goe round; and I am a new Argument of the new Philosophie, That the Earth …oues round; why may … not beleeue, that the …hole earth moues in a round motion, though that seeme to mee to stand, when as I seeme …o stand to my Compa…y, and yet am carried, in a giddy, and circular motion, as I stand? Man hath no center, but misery; there and onelyonly there, hee is fixt, and sure to finde himselfe. How little soeuer he bee raised, he moues, and moues in a circle, giddily; and as in the Heauens, there are bu… a few Circles, th…t goe about the whole world, but many Epicicles, and other lesser Circles, but yet Circles, so of those men, which are raised, and put into Circles, few of them moue from place to place, and passe through many and beneficiall places, but fall into lit…le Circles, and within a step or two, are at their end, and not so well, as they were in …he Center, from which …hey were raised. Eue…y thing serues to exem…lifie, to illustrate mans …isery; But I need goe …o farther, than my selfe; …or a long time, I was not …ble to rise; At last, I …ust bee raised by o…hers; and now I am vp, I am ready to sinke lower than before.
…1. EXPOSTVLATION.
MY God, my God, how large a glasse of the next World is this? As wee hauehave an Art, to cast from on… glasse to another, and so to carry the Species a great way off, so hast thou, that way, much more; wee shall hauehave a Resurrection in Heauen; the knowledge of that thou castest by another glasse vponupon vsus here; we feele that wee hauehave a Resurrection from sinne; and that by another glasse too; wee see wee hauehave a Resurrection of the body, from the mise…ies and calamities of …his life. This Resurre…tion of my body, shewes me the Resurrection of …ny soule; and both …ere seuerally, of both …ogether hereafter. Since …hy Martyrs vnderunder the Altar, presse thee with …heir solicitation for the Resurrection of the body to glory, thou wouldest pardon mee, if I should presse thee by Prayer, for the accomplishing of this Resurrection, which thou hast begunne in me to page missing blessed and glorious Tr…nity, was none to heare but you three, and yo… easily heare one ano…ther, because you sa… the same things. Bu… when thy Sonne cam… to the worke of Re…demption, Io. 12.28.thou spokest and they that heard it tooke it for Thunder and thy Sonne himself… cried with a loud voice … vponupon the Crosse, twice… as hee, who was to prepare his comming… Iohn Baptist, Mat. 27 46.50.was th… voice of a cryer, and …ot of a Whisperer. Still, …f it be thy voice, it is a loud voice; Deut. 5.22.These words, …aies thy Moses, Thou …okest with a great voice, …nd thou addest no more, …aies hee there; That which thou hast said, is …uident, and it is euident, …hat none can speake so …oud; none can binde vsus …o heare him, as wee …ust thee. The most high vttered his voice: what was his voice? 2 Sam. 22.14.The Lord …undred from heauen, it might bee heard; But …his voice, thy voice, is also a mightie voice;Psal. 68 33. not onelyonly mightie in power, it may be heard, nor mightie in obligation, it shoul… be heard, but mightie in operation, it will be… heard; and therefore has… thou bestowed a whol… Psalme vponupon vsus,Psal. 29. to lead… vsus to the consideration of thy voice. It is such a voice, as that thy Sonne saies,Io. 5.25. the dead shall hear… it; and thats my state … And why, O God, doest thou not speake to me… in that effectuall loudnesse? Saint Iohn heard a voice, Apo. 1.12.…d hee turned about to see …he voice: sometimes we …e too curious of the …strument, by what man …od speakes; but thou …peakest loudest, when …hou speakest to the …eart. There was silence, …nd I heard a voice, Iob. 4.16saies …ne, to thy seruant Iob. I …earken after thy voice, … thine Ordinances, and … seeke not a whispering …n Conuenticles; but yet, O my God, speake louder, …hat so, though I doe …eare thee now, then I may heare nothing but thee. My sinnes crie aloud; Cains murther di… so; my afflictions cri… aloud;Psa. 93.3.4. The flouds hau… lifted vp their voice, (an… waters are afflictions) bu… …hou, O Lord, art migh…tier than the voice o… many waters; than ma…ny temporall, many spi…rituall afflictions; tha… any of either kinde; and why doest thou no… speak to me in that voice? Ecclus. 8.8.What is man, and whereto serueth he? what is hi… good, and what is his euill? My bed of sinne is no… …uill, not desperatly euill, for thou doest call mee out of it; but my rising out of it is not good, (not perfitly good) if thou call not louder, and hold me now I am vp. O my God, I am afraid of a fearefull application of …hose words, when a man …ath done, then hee begin…eth;Ibid. v. 7. when his body is vnable to sinne, his sinfull memory sinnes ouer his old sinnes againe; and that which thou wouldest hauehave vsus to remember for cōpunction, wee remember with delight. 1 Sam. 19.15.Bring him to me in his bed, that I may kill him, saies Saul of Dauid; Thou hast not said so, that is not thy voice. Ioasb his owne seruants slew him, when hee was sicke in his bed;2 Chro. 24.25. Thou hast not …uffered that, that my seruants should so much as neglect mee, or be wearie of mee, in my sicknesse. Thou threatnest,Amos 3.12. that as a shepheard takes out of the mouth of the Lion, two legs, or a peec… of an eare, so shall the children of Israel, that …well in Samaria, in the corner of a bed, and in Da…ascus, in a couch bee ta…en away. That euen they that are secure from danger, shall perish; How much more might I, who was in the bed of death, die? But thou hast not dealt so with mee.Act. 5.15. As they brought out sicke persons in beds, that thy seruant Peters shadow might ouer-shadow them; Thou hast, O my God, ouer-shadowed mee, refreshed mee: But when wilt thou doe more? when wilt thou doe all? when wilt thou speake in thy loud voice? when wilt thou bid mee take vp my bed and walke? Mat. 96As my bed is my affections, when shall I beare them so as to subdue them? As my bed is my afflictions, when shall I beare them so, as not to murmure at them? When shall I take vp my bed and walke? not lie downe vponupon it, as it is my pleasure, not sinke vnderunder it, as it is my correction? But, O my God, my God, the God of all flesh, and of all spirit too, let me bee content with that in my …ainting spirit, which thou declarest in this decaied flesh, that as this body is content to sit still, that it may learne to stand, and to learne by standing to walke, and by walking to trauell, so my soule by obeying this thy voice of rising, may by a farther and farther growth of …hy grace, proceed so, and bee so established, as may remoue all suspitions, all iealousies betweene thee and mee, and may speake and heare in such a voice, as that still I may bee acceptable to thee, and satisfied from thee.
21. PRAYER.
O Eternall and most gracious God, who hast made little things to signifie great, and conuaid the infinite merits of thy Sonne in the water of Baptisme, and in the Bread and Wine of thy other Sacrament, vntounto vsus, receiue the sacrifice of my humble …hanks, that …hou hast not onelyonly af…orded mee, the abilitie …o rise out of this bed of wearinesse & discom…ort, …ut hast also made this bodily rising, by thy grace, an earnest of a second resurrection from sinne, and of a third, to euerlasting glory. Thy Sonne himselfe, alwaies infinite in himselfe, & incapable …f addition, was yet pleased to grow in the Virgi…s wombe, & to grow in stature, in the sight of men. Thy good pu…poses vponupon mee, I …now, hauehave their determination and perfection, in thy holy will vponupon mee; there thy grace is, and there I am altogether; but manifest thē …o vntounto me in thy seasons, and in thy measures and degrees, that I may not onelyonly hauehave that comfort of knowing thee to be infinitely good, but that also of finding thee to bee eueryevery day better and better to mee: and that as …hou gauest Saint Paul, …he Messenger of Satan, to humble him, so for my …umiliation, thou maiest giuegive me thy selfe, in this …nowledge, that what …race soeuer thou af…ord mee to day, yet I …hould perish to morrow, if I had not to morrowes grace too. Therefore I begge of thee, my daily bread; and as thou gauest mee the bread of sorrow for many daies, and since the bread of hope for some, and this day the bread of possessing, in rising by that strength, which thou the God of all strength, hast infused into me, so, O Lord, continue to mee the bread of life; the spirituall bread of life, in a faithfull assurance in thee; the sacramentall bread of life, in a worthy receiuing of thee; and the more reall bread of life, in an euerlasting vnion to thee. I know, O Lord, that when thou hadst created Angels, and they saw thee produce fowle, and fish, and beasts, and wormes, they did not importune thee, and say, shall wee hauehave no better …reatures than these, no better companions than these; but staid thy leisure, and then had man deliuered ouer to them, not much inferiour in nature to themselues. No more doe I, O God, now that by thy first merciemercy, I am able to rise, importune thee for present confirmation of …ealth; nor now, tha… by thy merciemercy, I am brought to see, that thy correction hath wrought medicinally vponupon mee, presume I vponupon that spirituall strength I hauehave; but as I acknowledge, that my bodily strength is subiect to eueryevery pu…e of wind, so is my spirituall strength to eueryevery blast of vanitie. Keepe me therefore still, O my gracious God, in such a proportion of both strengths, as I may still h…e something to thanke thee for, which I hauehave receiued, & still something to pray for, and aske at thy hand.