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中文导读
《第十七沉思》来自多恩病中写作。钟声为他人而鸣，也为整个共同体而鸣。这里的核心不是现代个人主义式名句，而是基督教身体共同体：他人的死亡会改变我，因为我们不是孤立岛屿。
英语原文
XVII. NUNC LENTO SONITU DICUNT, MORIERIS.
Now, this bell tolling softly for another, says to me: Thou must die.
XVII. MEDITATION.
Perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows
not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better
than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have
caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The church is Catholic,
universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all.
When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is
thereby connected to that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into
that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action
concerns me: all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one
man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a
better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs
several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by
sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every
translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again
for that library where every book shall lie open to one another. As
therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher
only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but
how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness.
There was a contention as far as a suit (in which both piety and
dignity, religion and estimation, were mingled), which of the religious
orders should ring to prayers first in the morning; and it was
determined, that they should ring first that rose earliest. If we
understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for our evening
prayer, we would be glad to make it ours by rising early, in that
application, that it might be ours as well as his, whose indeed it is.
The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth; and though it intermit
again, yet from that minute that that occasion wrought upon him, he is
united to God. Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but
who takes off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends not
his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it
from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world? No
man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the
continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a
manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes
me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know
for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee. Neither can we call this a
begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as though we were not
miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next
house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbours. Truly it were an
excusable covetousness if we did, for affliction is a treasure, and
scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is
not matured and ripened by it, and made fit for God by that affliction.
If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none
coined into current money, his treasure will not defray him as he
travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not
current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our
home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and
this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no
use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out and
applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of another's danger I
take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my
recourse to my God, who is our only security.
XVII. EXPOSTULATION.
My God, my God, is this one of thy ways of drawing light out of
darkness, to make him for whom this bell tolls, now in this dimness of
his sight, to become a superintendent, an overseer, a bishop, to as many
as hear his voice in this bell, and to give us a confirmation in this
action? Is this one of thy ways, to raise strength out of weakness, to
make him who cannot rise from his bed, nor stir in his bed, come home
to me, and in this sound give me the strength of healthy and vigorous
instructions? O my God, my God, what thunder is not a well-tuned cymbal,
what hoarseness, what harshness, is not a clear organ, if thou be
pleased to set thy voice to it? And what organ is not well played on if
thy hand be upon it? Thy voice, thy hand, is in this sound, and in this
one sound I hear this whole concert. I hear thy Jacob call unto his sons
and say, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall
befall you in the last days:[241] he says, That which I am now, you
must be then. I hear thy Moses telling me, and all within the compass of
this sound, This is the blessing wherewith I bless you before my
death;[242] this, that before your death, you would consider your own
in mine. I hear thy prophet saying to Hezekiah, Set thy house in order,
for thou shalt die, and not live:[243] he makes use of his family, and
calls this a setting of his house in order, to compose us to the
meditation of death. I hear thy apostle saying, I think it meet to put
you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must go out of this
tabernacle:[244] this is the publishing of his will, and this bell is
our legacy, the applying of his present condition to our use. I hear
that which makes all sounds music, and all music perfect; I hear thy Son
himself saying, Let not your hearts be troubled;[245] only I hear this
change, that whereas thy Son says there, I go to prepare a place for
you, this man in this sound says, I send to prepare you for a place,
for a grave. But, O my God, my God, since heaven is glory and joy, why
do not glorious and joyful things lead us, induce us to heaven? Thy
legacies in thy first will, in the Old Testament, were plenty and
victory, wine and oil, milk and honey, alliances of friends, ruin of
enemies, peaceful hearts and cheerful countenances, and by these
galleries thou broughtest them into thy bedchamber, by these glories and
joys, to the joys and glories of heaven. Why hast thou changed thine old
way, and carried us by the ways of discipline and mortification, by the
ways of mourning and lamentation, by the ways of miserable ends and
miserable anticipations of those miseries, in appropriating the exemplar
miseries of others to ourselves, and usurping upon their miseries as our
own, to our prejudice? Is the glory of heaven no perfecter in itself,
but that it needs a foil of depression and ingloriousness in this world,
to set it off? Is the joy of heaven no perfecter in itself, but that it
needs the sourness of this life to give it a taste? Is that joy and that
glory but a comparative glory and a comparative joy? not such in itself,
but such in comparison of the joylessness and the ingloriousness of this
world? I know, my God, it is far, far otherwise. As thou thyself, who
art all, art made of no substances, so the joys and glory which are with
thee are made of none of these circumstances, essential joy, and glory
essential. But why then, my God, wilt thou not begin them here? Pardon,
O God, this unthankful rashness; I that ask why thou dost not, find even
now in myself, that thou dost; such joy, such glory, as that I conclude
upon myself, upon all, they that find not joys in their sorrows, glory
in their dejections in this world, are in a fearful danger of missing
both in the next.
XVII. PRAYER.
O eternal and most gracious God, who hast been pleased to speak to us,
not only in the voice of nature, who speaks in our hearts, and of thy
word, which speaks to our ears, but in the speech of speechless
creatures, in Balaam's ass, in the speech of unbelieving men, in the
confession of Pilate, in the speech of the devil himself, in the
recognition and attestation of thy Son, I humbly accept thy voice in the
sound of this sad and funeral bell. And first, I bless thy glorious
name, that in this sound and voice I can hear thy instructions, in
another man's to consider mine own condition; and to know, that this
bell which tolls for another, before it come to ring out, may take me in
too. As death is the wages of sin it is due to me; as death is the end
of sickness it belongs to me; and though so disobedient a servant as I
may be afraid to die, yet to so merciful a master as thou I cannot be
afraid to come; and therefore into thy hands, O my God, I commend my
spirit, a surrender which I know thou wilt accept, whether I live or
die; for thy servant David made it,[246] when he put himself into thy
protection for his life; and thy blessed Son made it, when he delivered
up his soul at his death: declare thou thy will upon me, O Lord, for
life or death in thy time; receive my surrender of myself now; into thy
hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. And being thus, O my God, prepared
by thy correction, mellowed by thy chastisement, and conformed to thy
will by thy Spirit, having received thy pardon for my soul, and asking
no reprieve for my body, I am bold, O Lord, to bend my prayers to thee
for his assistance, the voice of whose bell hath called me to this
devotion. Lay hold upon his soul, O God, till that soul have thoroughly
considered his account; and how few minutes soever it have to remain in
that body, let the power of thy Spirit recompense the shortness of time,
and perfect his account before he pass away; present his sins so to him,
as that he may know what thou forgivest, and not doubt of thy
forgiveness, let him stop upon the infiniteness of those sins, but dwell
upon the infiniteness of thy mercy; let him discern his own demerits,
but wrap himself up in the merits of thy Son Christ Jesus; breathe
inward comforts to his heart, and afford him the power of giving such
outward testimonies thereof, as all that are about him may derive
comforts from thence, and have this edification, even in this
dissolution, that though the body be going the way of all flesh, yet
that soul is going the way of all saints. When thy Son cried out upon
the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? he spake not so
much in his own person, as in the person of the church, and of his
afflicted members, who in deep distresses might fear thy forsaking. This
patient, O most blessed God, is one of them; in his behalf, and in his
name, hear thy Son crying to thee, My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? and forsake him not; but with thy left hand lay his body
in the grave (if that be thy determination upon him), and with thy right
hand receive his soul into thy kingdom, and unite him and us in one
communion of saints. Amen.
FOOTNOTES:
[240] Rev. xiv. 13.
[241] Gen. xlix. 1.
[242] Deut. xxxiii. 1.
[243] 2 Kings, xx. 1.
[244] 2 Pet. i. 13.
[245] John, xiv. 1.
[246] Psalm xxxi. 5.