Prison-Pietie or, Meditations Divine and Moral. Digested into Poetical Heads, On Mixt and Various Subjects. Whereunto is added A Panegyrick to The Right Reverend, and most Nobly descended, Henry, Lord Bishop of London. By Samuel Speed, Prisoner in Ludgate, London |
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The Sick man's Ease. |
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The Sick man's Ease.
The Sick man is a Prisoner to his bed,When healthy men have room their wings to spread.
Wealth without Health a gilded torment is;
Crœsus vast Riches lead not unto Bliss:
Nor can the Wealth of all the Indian shore
Assure the sick from Agues to restore.
Health is a Jewel of such high degree,
Not to be priz'd until it wanted be.
The sick can nothing do, he's indispos'd;
He cannot pray, his eyes are almost clos'd.
He restless turns, then on his back doth lie,
Whilst pain deprives him of his Piety.
But when a good man sickens, God hath sed,
He in his sickness will make All his Bed,
His Pillow, Bolster, Sides, the Feet, and Head.
God taketh thorough care for his Elect,
In All his Bed he will be circumspect.
And sure that God that suffers a Disease
To reign, is best Physician, giving ease.
Herein his Art is excellently spread;
Not fitting Bed, but Person to the Bed.
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What God inflicts the Just doth undergo.
But how shall God make my bed? I have none,
Saith the poor man, and saith it with a groan.
To him God answers, Son, be thou content,
For that's a bed adorn'd with Ornament.
Jacob slept on the ground; who would not deem
Himself most happy, having Jacob's dream?
Fox in his book of Martyrs, speaks of one,
A woman poor in Jersey, yet though grown
Mean to the World (when Mary, Englands Queen,
Drew on our English Stage a bloody Scene)
God made her bed in that same fiery flake;
And when she came as Martyr to the stake,
A Childe came from her, to her hearts desire:
So God brought her to bed by flames of fire.
He likewise threatned Jezabel, that she
Should have a bed of fire. His Justice he
Therein displays: May not his Mercy then
Turn flames of fire to beds for righteous men?
Nothing's impossible if God accord;
Fire shall prove Beds of Ease, say he the Word.
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