Page:Devotions - Donne - 1840.djvu/148

 when thy servant David had said that the fear of the Lord's the beginning of wisdom, and his son had repeated it again , he that collects both calls this fear the root of wisdom; and, that it may embrace all, he calls it wisdom itself , A wise man, therefore, is never without it, never without the exercise of it: therefore thou sentest Moses to thy people, that they might learn to fear thee all the days of their lives , not in heavy and calamitous, but in good and cheerful days too; for Noah, who had assurance of his deliverance, yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark, for the saving of his house. Awise man will fear in every thing. And therefore, though I pretend to no other degree of wisdom, I am abundantly rich in this, that I lie here possessed with that fear which is thy fear, both that this sickness is thy immediate correction, and not merely a natural accident, and therefore fearful, because it is a fearful thing to fall into thy hands; and that this fear preserves me from all inordinate fear, arising out of the infirmity of nature, because thy hand being upon me, thou wilt never let me fall out of thy hand.

MOST mighty God and merciful God, the God of all true sorrow, and true joy too, of all fear, and of all hope too, as thou hast given me a repentance, not to be repented of, so give me, O Lord, a fear, of which I may not be afraid. Give me tender and supple and conformable affections, that as I joy with them that joy, and mourn with them that mourn, so I may fear with them that fear. And since thou hast vouchsafed to discover to me, in his fear whom thou hast admitted to be my assistance in this sick-