He was earnest and unwearied in the search of knowledge, with which his vigorous soul is now satisfied, and employed in a continual praise of that God that first breathed it into his active body: that body which once was a temple of the Holy Ghost, and is now become a small quantity of Christian dust:-- But I shall see it re-animated. I.W. DEVOTIONS VPON Emergent Occasions and seuerall steps in my Sicknes. Digested into 1. MEDITATIONS _upon our Humane Condition_. 2. EXPOSTULATIONS, _and Debatements with God_. 3. PRAYERS, _upon the severall occasions, to him_. * * * * * By IOHN DONNE, _Deane of S. Pauls_, London. * * * * * London Printed by _A. M._ for THOMAS IONES. 1624. _TO THE MOST EXCELLENT PRINCE_, PRINCE CHARLES. _MOST EXCELLENT PRINCE_, I have had three births; one, natural, when I came into the world; one, supernatural, when I entered into the ministry; and now, a preternatural birth, in returning to life, from this sickness. In my second birth, your Highness' royal father vouchsafed me his hand, not only to sustain me in it, but to lead me to it. In this last birth, I myself am born a father: this child of mine, this book, comes into the world, from me, and with me. And therefore, I presume (as I did the father, to the Father) to present the son to the Son; this image of my humiliation, to the lively image of his Majesty, your Highness. It might be enough, that God hath seen my devotions: but examples of good kings are commandments; and Hezekiah writ the meditations of his sickness, after his sickness. Besides, as I have lived to see (not as a witness only, but as a partaker), the happiness of a part of your royal father's time, so shall I live (in my way) to see the happiness of the times of your Highness too, if this child of mine, inanimated by your gracious acceptation, may so long preserve alive the memory of Your Highness humblest and devotedest, JOHN DONNE. CONTENTS _The Stations of the Sickness_ PAGE 1. The first alteration, the first grudging of the sickness 7 2. The strength and the function of the senses, and other faculties, change and fail 12 3. The patient takes his bed 17 4. The physician is sent for 23 5. The physician comes 30 6. The physician is afraid 35 7. The physician desires to have others joined with him 43 8. The king sends his own physician 50 9. Upon their consultation, they prescribe 56 10. They find the disease to steal on insensibly, and endeavor to meet with it so 63