Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Devotion 3
3. Decubitus sequitur tandem. The Patient takes his bed.
2. MEDITATION.
WEe attribute bu… one priuiledge, and aduantage to Mans body, aboue other mouing creatures, that he is not as others, groueling… but of an erect, of an vpright form, naturally built, & disposed to the contemplation of Heauen. Indeed it is a thankfull forme, and recompences that soule, which giues it, with carrying that soule so many foot higher, towards heauen. Other creatures look to the earth; and euen that is no vnfit obiect, no vnfit contemplation for Man; for thither hee must come; but because, Man is not to stay there, as other creatures are, Man in his naturall forme, is carried to th… contemplation of tha… place, which is his hom… Heauen. This is Man prerogatiue; but wha… state hath he in this di…nitie? A feuer ca… filli… him downe, a feuer ca… depose him; a feuer ca… bring that head, whic… yesterday caried a crou… of gold, fiue foot to…wards a crown of glory as low as his own foo… to day. When God cam… to breath into Man th… breath of life, he foun… him flat vpō the groū … when hee comes to withdraw that breath from him againe, hee prepares him to it, by laying him flat vponupon his bed. Scarse any prison so close, that affords not the prisoner two, or …hree steps. The Anchorites that barqu'd themselues vp in hollowe trees, & immur'd themselues in hollow walls; That peruerse man, that barrell'd himselfe in a Tubb, all could stand, or sit, and enioy some change of pasture. A sicke bed, is a graue, an… all that the patient saie… there, is but a varying o… his owne Epitaph. Eue…ry nights bed is a Typ… of the graue: At nigh… wee tell our seruants a… what houre wee wil… rise; here we cannot tel… our selues, at what day what week, what mo…neth. Here the head lie… as low as the foot; th… Head of the people, a…lowe as they, whom those feete trod vponupon And that hande tha… signed Pardons, is to… weake to begge his owne, if hee might hauehave it for lifting vp that hand: Strange fetters to the feete, strange Manacles to the hands, vvhen the feete, and handes are bound so much the faster, by how much the coards are slacker; So much the lesse able to doe their Offices, by how much more the Sinnewes and Ligaments are the looser. In the Graue I may speak thorough the stones, in the voice of my friends, an… in the accents of thos… wordes, which thei… louelove may afford my me…mory; Here I am min… owne Ghost, and rathe… affright my beholders then instruct them; the… conceiue the worst o… me now, and yet fea… worse; they giuegive me fo… dead now, & yet won…der how I doe, whe… they wake a… midnight and aske how I doe, …morrow. Miserable and, (though common to all) in human postu… where I must practise …y lying in the graue, by …ying still, and not practise my Resurrection, by …ising any more.
3. EXPOSTVLATION.
MY God, and my Iesus, my Lord, and my Christ, my Strength, and my Saluatiō, I heare thee, and I hearken to thee, whē thou rebukest thy Disciples, for rebuking …hem, who brought …hildren to thee;Mat. 19.13. Suffer little children to come t… mee, saiest thou. Is ther… a verier child then I a… now? I cannot say wit… thy seruant Ieremy, Lor… I am a child, and cann… speake; but, O Lord, I a… a sucking childe, an… cannot eat, a creepin… childe, and cannot go… how shall I come t… thee? Whither shall … come to thee? To thi… bed? I hauehave this weake and childish froward…nes too, I cannot sit vp… and yet am loth to go t… bed; shall I find thee … bed? Oh, hauehave I alwaies done so? The bed is not ordinarily thy Scene, thy Climate: Lord, dost tho… not accuse me, dost thou not reproach to mee, my former sinns, when thou layest mee vponupon this bed? Is not this to hang a man at his owne dore, to lay him sicke in his owne bed of wantonnesse? When thou chidest vsus by thy Prophet for lying in beds of Iuory, Amos 6 4.is not thine anger vented; not till thou changest our bedds of Iuory, into bebs of Ebony Dauid sweares vntounto thee,Psal. 132 3. that hee will not go… vp into his bed, till he ha… built thee a House. To go… vp into the bed, denote… strength, and promi…e… ease; But when tho… saiest,Apoc. 2.22. That thou wilt ca… Iesubel into a bed, tho… mak'st thine own com…ment vponupon that, Tho… callest the bed Tribul…tion, great Tribulation … How shal they come t… thee, whom thou ha… nayled to their bed… Thou art in the Congr…gation, Mat. 8.6& I in a solitude: when the Centurions seruant lay sicke at home, his Master was faine to come to Christ; …he sicke man could not. Their friend lay sicke of the Palsey, 8.4.and the four charitable men were faine to bring him to Christ; he could not come.8.14. Peters wiues mother lay sicke of a feuer, & Christ came to her; shee could not come to him. My friends may carrie mee home to thee, in their prayers in the Congregation; Thou must com… home to me in the visi…tation of thy Spirit, an… in the seale of thy Sacra…ment: But when I a… cast into this bedd, m… slacke sinewes are yro… fetters, and those thi… sheets, yron dores vpo… me;Psa. 26.8. And, Lord, I hauehave lo…ued the habitation of th… house, and the place whe… thine honour dwelleth: lye here,84.4. and say, Blesse are they; that dwell in th… house; but I cannot say I will come into thy hous… I may say,5.8. In thy fea… will I worship towards thy …oly Temple, but I cannot …ay in thy holy Temple… :69.10. And, Lord, the zeale of thy House, eats me vp, as fast as my feuer; It is not a Recusancie, for I would come, but it is an Excōmunication, I must not. But Lord, thou art Lord of Hosts, & louest Action; Why callest thou me from my calling? In the… graue no man shall praise thee; In the doore of the graue, this sicke bed, no Man shal heare mee praise thee: Thou hast not opned my lips that my mouth migh… shew thee thy praise, bu… that my mouth migh… shew foorth thy praise But thine Apostles fear… takes hold of mee, th… when I hauehave preached to …thers, 1 Cor. 9.27.I my selfe should be cast-way; and therefo… am I cast downe, that might not be cast awa… … Thou couldst take m… by the head,2. Reg. 2.11. as tho… didst Abacuc, and carr… mee so; By a Chariot, … thou didst Eliah, & ca…rie me so; but thou ca…riest me thine own priuate way, the way by which thou carryedst thy Sonne, who first lay vponupon the earth, & praid, and then had his Exaltation, as himselfe calls his Crucifying, and first descended into hell, and then had his Ascension. There is another Station (indeed neither are stations but prostrations) lower then this bed; To morrow I may be laid one Story lower, vponupon the Floore, the face of the earth, and next day another Story, in the graue, the wombe of the Earth: As yet God suspends mee betweene Heauen and Earth, as a Meteor; and I am not in Heauen, because an earthly bodie clogges me, and I am not in the Earth, because a heauenly Soule sustaines mee… And it is thine owne Law,Exod. 21 18. O God, that if a man bee smitten so by ano…ther, as that hee keepe hi… bed, though he dye not, hee that hurt him, must take care of his healing, and recompence him. Th… hand strikes mee into this bed; and therefore if I rise againe, thou wilt bee my recompence, all the dayes of my life, in making the memory of this sicknes beneficiall to me, and if my body fall yet lower, thou wilt take my soule out of this bath, & present it to thy Father, washed againe, and againe, and again, in thine own teares, in thine owne sweat, in thine owne blood.
3. PRAYER.
O Most mightie an… most merciful God who though thou hau… taken me off of my feet hast not taken me off o… my foundation, whic… is thy selfe, who thoug… thou hauehave remoued m… frō that vpright forme, in which I could stand and see thy throne, th… Heauens, yet hast not remoued from mee tha… light, by which I can li… and see thy selfe, who though thou hauehave weakened my bodily knees, that they cannot bow to thee, hast yet left mee the knees of my heart, which are bowed vntounto thee euermore; As thou hast made this bed, thine Altar, make me thy Sacrifice; and as thou makest thy Sonne Christ Iesus the Priest, so make me his Deacon, to minister to him in a chereful surrender of my body, & soule to thy pleasure, by his hands. I come vntounto thee, O God, my God, I come vntounto thee, so as I can come, I come to thee, by imbracing thy comming to me) I come in the confidence, & in the application of thy seruant Dauids promise,Psa. 41.3 That thou wilt make all my bed in my sicknesse; All my bedd; That which way soeuer I turne, I may turne to thee; And as I feele thy hand vponupon all my body, so I may find it vponupon all my bedde, and see all my corrections, and all my refreshings to flow from one, and …he same, and all from thy hand. As … hast made these feather… …hornes, in the sharpnes of this sicknes, so, Lord, make these thornes, feathers, againe, feathers of thy Do…e, in the peace of Conscience, and in a holy recourse to thine Arke, to the Instruments of true comfort, in thy Institutions, and in the Ordinances of thy Church. Forget my bed, O Lord, as it hath beene a bedde of sloth, and worse then sloth, Take mee not, O Lord, at this aduantage, to te…rifie my soule, with say…ing, now I hauehave me thee there, where tho… hast so often departe from me; but hauin… burnt vp that bed, b… these vehement heate and washed that bed i… these abundant sweat… make my bed againe, Lord, and enable me a…cording to thy co…mand,Psal. 4.4. to commune wi… mine owne heart vponupon … bed, and be still. To pr…uide a bed for all m… former sinnes, whilest I lie vponupon this bed, and a graue for my sins, before I come to my graue; and when I hauehave deposed them in the wounds of thy Sonn, to rest in that assurance, that my Conscience is discharged frō further anxietie, and my soule from farther danger, and my Memory from further calumny. Doe this, O Lord, for his sake, who did, and suffered so much, that thou mightest, as well in thy Iustice, as in thy Mercy, doe it for me, thy Sonne our Sauiour, Christ Iesus …