Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Devotion 2
5. Solus adest. The Phisician comes.
5. MEDITATION.
AS Sicknesse is th… greatest misery. s… the greatest misery o… …icknes is solitude; when …he infectiousnes of the disease deterrs thē who …hould assist, from cō …ing; Euen the Phisici…n dares scarse come. So…itude is a tormēt, which is not threatned in hell it selfe. Meere vacuitie, the first Agent, God, the first instrument of God, Nature, will not admit; Nothing can be vtterly …nptie, but so neere a …egree towards Vacutie, as Solitude, to bee …ut one, they louelove not. When I am dead, & my body might infect, the… hauehave a remedy, th… may bury me; but w… I am but sick, and mig… infect, they hauehave no …medy, but their absen… and my solitude. It is … excuse to them that a … great, and pre…end, & y… are loth to come; it is … inhibition to those w… would truly come, b… cause they may be ma… instruments, and pe…ducts, to the infectiō … others, by their cōmin… And it is an Outlawry, … Excommunication vpo… …he patient, and seperats …im from all offices not onelyonly of Ciuilitie, but of …orking Charitie. A long …icknesse will w…ary …i…nds a… last, but a pe…tilentiall sicknes auerts them from the begin…ing. God himself wold …dmit a fig…e of Society, …s there is a plurality of …ersons in God, though …here bee but one God; & all his exte…nall actions testifie a louelove of So…i…tie and communion. In Heauen ther… are Ordens of Angels, and Armies of Martyrs, & in that hou… many mansions; in Ear… Families, Cities, Church… Colleges, all plurall thing… and lest either of th… should not be compa… enough alone, there … an association of bo… a Communion of Sain… which makes the M…tant, and Triumpha… Church, one Parish; … that Christ, was not o… of his Dioces, when h… was vponupon the Earth, n… out of his Temple, wh… he was in our flesh G… who sawe that all th… …ee made, was good, …ame not so neer seeing … defect in any of his works, as when he saw …hat it was not good, …or man to bee alone, …herefore h…e made him … helper; and one that …hould helpe him so, as …o increase the number, …nd giuegive him her owne, …d more societie. Angels, …ho do not propagate, …or multiply, were …ade at first in an abū …ant number; and so …ere starres: But for …he things of this world, their blessing was, Encrease; for I think, I nee… not aske leaue to think that there is no Phenix nothing singular, no…thing alone: Men tha… in here vponupon Nature on…ly, are so far from think…ing, that there is an…thing singular in th… world, as that they wi… scarce thinke, that th… world it selfe is singula… but that eueryevery Plane… and eueryevery Starre, is an…other World like this They finde reason t… conceiue, not onelyonly… pluralitie in eueryevery Species in the world, but a pluralitie of worlds; so that the abho…rers of Solitude, are not solitary; for God, and Nature, and Reason concurre against it. Now, a man may counterfeyt the Plague in a vowe, and mistake a Disease for Religion; by such a re…iring, and recluding of …imselfe from all men, … to doe good to no …an, to conuerse with …o man. God hath two …estamēts, two Wils; but this is a Scedule, and no… of his, a Codicill, and no… of his, not in the body o… his Testaments, but interlind, and postscrib'd by o…thers, that the way t… the Communion of Saint… should be by such a sol…tude, as excludes all do…ing of good here. Th… is a disease of the mind … the height of an inf…ctious disease of the bo…dy, is solitude, to be left …lone: for this makes … infectious bed, equa… nay worse then a gra… that thogh in both … equally alone, in my bed I know it, and feele it, and shall not in my graue: and this too, that in my bedd, my soule is still in an infectious body, and shall not in my graue bee so.
5. EXPOSTVLATION.
O God, my God, thy Son tooke it not ill at Marthaes handes, that when he said vntounto her, Thy brother Lazarus shall rise againe, Io: 13.23.she expostulated it so far with him, as to reply, I know that h… shal rise againe in the Resurrection, at the last day … for shee was miserable by wanting him then… Take it not ill, O my God, frō me, that thogh thou hauehave o…dained i… for a blessing, and for … dignitie to thy people, That they should dwell alone, Num; 23.9and not bee reckoned among the Nations, (because they should be aboue them) & that they should dwell in safetie alone, Deu: 33.28.(free from the infestation of enemies) yet I …ake thy leaue to remē ber thee, that thou hast sa…d to,Eccles. 4.10. Two are better then one; And Woe be vntounto him that is alone when he falleth … and so, when he is fallen, and laid in the bedde of sicknesse too.Sap. 1.9. Righteousnesse is immortall; I know thy wisdome hath said so; but no Man, though couered with the righteousnes of thy Sonne, is immor…all so, as not to die; for he who was righteousnes it selfe, did die. I know that the Son of righteous…nes, Mat. 14.23.thy Son, refused no… nay affected solitariness… lonenesse, many, man… times; but at all time… he was able to cōman… more then twelue legions … Angels to his seruice;Mat. 26.13. an… when he did not so, … was farre from being …lone; for, I am not alon… saies he,Io. 8.16. but I, and the F…ther that sent me. I canno… feare, but that I shall a…waies be with thee, an… him; but whether thi… disease may not alien, … remooue my friends, … …hat they stand aloofe frō …ny sore, Psa. 38.11.and my kinsmen stād afar off, I cannot tel. … cannot feare, but that thou wilt reckon with me from this minute, in which, by thy grace, I see thee… whe…her this vnderstanding, & this will, and this memory, may not decay, to the discouragement, and the ill interpretation of thē, that see that heauy change in me, I cānot tell. It was for thy blessed, thy powerfull Sonne alone,Esa. 63.3. to tread the wine-presse alone, and none of the people with him; am not able to passe thi… agony alone; not alon… without thee; Thou a… thy spirit; not alone wi…out thine; spirituall an… temporall Phisicians, a… thine; not alone witho… mine; Those whom th… bands of blood, or frien…ship … hath made mine … a… mine; And if thou, o… thine, or mine, abando… me, I am alone, and w… vntounto me if I bee alone… Elias himselfe fainte… vnderunder that apprehēsion… Loe, 1. reg… …4.14.I am left alone; an… Martha murmured at that,Luc. 10.40. and said to Christ, Lord, doest not thou care, that my sister hath left me to serue alone? Neither could Ieremiah enter into his Lamētations, from a higher groūd, then to say,Ier. 1.1. How doth the citie sit solitary, that was full of people. O my God, it is the Leper, that thou hast cō demned to liue alone;Leu: 13.46. HaueHave … such a Leprosie in my Soule, that I must die alone; alone without thee? Shall this come to such a Le…rosie in my body, that I must die …lone? Alone witho… them that should assi… that shold comfort m… But comes not this E…postulation too neere murmuring? Must I b… cōcluded with that,Exo: 14.2. th… Moses was commaunded … come neere the Lord alon… That solitarines, & d…reliction, and abando…ning of others, dispose… vsus best for God, who ac…cōpanies vsus most alon… May I not remember & apply to;Gen. 32.24. that thogh… God come not to Iacob till he found him alone, …et when he found him alone, hee wrestled with him, and lamed him? That when in the dereliction and forsaking of friends and Phisicians, a man is left alone to God, God may so wrestle with this Iacob, with this Conscience, as to put it out of ioynt, & so appeare to him, as that he dares not looke vponupon him face to face, when as by way of reflection, in the consolation of his temporall or spirituall seruants, and ordinances hee durst, … they were there?Ecclus. 6.16. But … faithfull friend is the phisicke of life, and they th… feare the Lord, shall find him. Therefore hath th… Lord afforded me bo… in one person, that Ph…sician, who is my faith…full friend.
5. PRAYER.
O Eternall, and mo… gracious God, wh… calledst down fire from Heauen vponupon the sinfu… Cities, but once, and op…nedst the Earth to swallow the Murmurers, but once … and threwst down the Tower of Siloe vponupon sinners, but once, but for thy workes of merciemercy repeatest them often, & still workest by thine owne paternes, as thou broghtest Man into this world, by giuing him a helper fit for him here, …o whether it bee thy will to continue mee …ong thus, or to dismisse me by death, be pleased to afford me the helpes fit for both conditions, either for my weak sta… here, or my finall tran…migration from hence… And if thou mayest r…ceiue glory by that wa… (and, by all wayes tho… maist receiue glory) gl…rifie thy selfe in preser…uing this body from suc… infections, as migh… withhold those, wh… would come, or in da…ger thē who doe come… and preserue this soule … the faculties thereof, fr… all such distempers, … might shake the assu…rance which my selfe & others hauehave had, that because thou hast loued me, thou wouldst louelove me to my end, and at my end. Open none of my dores, not of my hart, not of mine eares, not of my house, to any supplanter that would enter to vndermine me in my Religion to thee, in the time of my weaknesse, or to defame me, & magnifie himselfe, with false rumors of such a victory, & surprisall of me, after I am dead; Be my saluation, and plead my saluation; work it, and decla… it; and as thy triumpha… shall be, so let the M…tant Church bee assure… that thou wast my … and I thy seruant, to, an… in my consummatio… Blesse thou the learning and the labours of th… Man, whō thou sende… to assist me; and sinc… thou takest mee by th… hand, & puttest me int… his hands (for I come t… him in thy name, who in thy name comes t… me) since I clog not m… hopes in him, no nor my …ayers to thee, with any …mited conditions, but …wrap all in those two …etitions, Thy kingdome …me, thy will be done, pro…er him, and relieue …e, in thy way, in thy …me, and in thy mea…re. Amen.