become so humble as to banish self-flattery and such weeds as naturally grow there yet they have not been able to kill this desire of glory but that like our radical heat it will both live and dye with us and many think it should do so and we want not sacred examples to justifie the desire of having our memory to out-live our lives which I mention because Dr. Donne by the persuasion of Dr. Fox easily yielded at this very time to have a Monument made for him but Dr. Fox undertook not to persuade how or what it should be that was left to Dr. Donne himself This being resolved upon Dr. Donne sent for a Carver to make for him in wood the figure of an Urn giving him directions for the compass and height of it and to bring with it a board of the height of his body These being got then without delay a choice Painter was to be in a readiness to draw his picture which was taken as followeth Several Charcole-fires being first made in his large Study he brought with him into that place his winding-sheet in his hand and having put off all his cloaths had this sheet put on him and so tyed with knots at his head and feet and his hands so placed as dead bodies are usually fitted to be shrowded and put into the grave Upon this Urn he thus stood with his eyes shut and with so much of the sheet turned aside as might shew his lean pale and death-like face which was purposely turned toward the East from whence he expected the second coming of his and our Saviour Thus he was drawn at his just hèight and when the picture was fully finished he caused it to be set by his bed-side where it continued and became his hourly object till his death and was then given to his dearest friend and Executor Dr. King who caused him to be thus carved in one entire piece of white Marble as it now stands in the Cathedral Church of St. Pauls and by Dr. Donne's own appointment these words were to be affixed to it as his Epitaph JOHANNES DONNE Sac. Theol. Professor Post varia Studia quibus ab annis tenerrimis fideliter nec infeliciter incubuit Instinctu impulsu Sp. Sancti Monitu Hortatu REGIS JACOBI Ordines Sacros amplexus Anno sui Jesu 1614. suae aetatis 42. Decanatu hujus Ecclesiae indutus 27. Novembris 1621. Exutus morte ultimo Die Martii 1631. Hic licet in Occiduo Cinere Aspicit Eum Cujus nomen est Oriens Upon Monday following he took his last leave of his beloved Study and being sensible of his hourly decay retired himself to his bed-chamber and that week sent at several times for many of his most considerable friends with whom he took a solemn and deliberate farewell commending to their considerations some sentences useful for the regulation of their lives and then dismist them as good Jacob did his sons with a spiritual benediction The Sunday following he appointed his servants that if there were any business undone that concerned him or themselves it should be prepared against Saturday next for after that day he would not mix his thoughts with any thing that concerned this world nor ever did But as Job so he waited for the appointed time of his dissolution And now he had nothing to do but to dye to do which he stood in need of no longer time for he had studied long and to so happy a perfection that in a former sickness he called God to witness he was that minute ready to deliver his soul into his hands if that minute God would determine his dissolution In that sickness he beg'd of God the constancy to be preserved in that estate for ever and his patient expectation to have his immortal soul disrob'd from her garment of mortality makes me confident he now had a modest assurance that his Prayers were then heard and his Petition granted He lay fifteen dayes earnestly expecting his hourly change and in the last hour of his last day as his body melted away and vapoured into spirit his soul having I verily believe some Revelation of the Beatifical Vision he said I were miserable if I might not dye and after those words closed many periods of his faint breath by saying often Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done His speech which had long been his ready and faithful servant left him not till the last minute of his life and then forsook him not to serve another Master but dyed before him for that it was become useless to him that now conversed with God on earth as Angels are said to do in heaven onely by thoughts and looks Being speechless he did as St. Stephen look stedfastly towards heaven till he saw the Son of God standing at the right hand of his Father and being satisfied with this blessed sight as his soul ascended and his last breath departed from him he closed his own eyes and then disposed his hands and body into such a posture as required not the least alteration by those that came to shroud him Thus variable thus vertuous was the Life thus excellent thus exemplary was the Death of this memorable man He was buried in that place of St. Pauls Church which he had appointed for that use some years before his death and by which he passed daily to pay his publick devotions to Almighty God who was then served twice a day by a publick form of Prayer and Praises in that place but he was not buried privately though he desired it for beside an unnumbred number of others many persons of Nobility and of eminency for Learning who did love and honour him in his life did shew it at his death by a voluntary and sad attendance of his body to the grave where nothing was so remarkable as a publick sorrow To which place of his Burial some mournful Friend repaired and as Alexander the Great did to the grave of the famous Achilles so they strewed his with an abundance of curious and costly Flowers which course they who were never yet known continued morning and evening for many dayes not ceasing till the stones that were taken up in that Church to give his body admission into the cold earth now his bed of rest were again by the Masons art so levelled and firmed as they had been formerly and his place of Burial undistinguishable to common view Nor was this all the Honour done to his reverend Ashes for as there be some persons that will not receive a reward for that for which God accounts himself a Debtor persons that dare trust God with their Charity and without a witness so there was by some grateful unknown Friend that thought Dr. Donnes memory ought to be perpetuated an hundred Marks sent to his two faithful Friends and Executors towards the making of his Monument It was not for many years known by whom but after the death of Dr. Fox it was
judged to hold proportion with many who had made that study the employment of their whole life Sir Francis being dead and that happy family dissolved Mr. Donne took for himself an house in Micham near to Croydon in Surrey a place noted for good air and choice company there his wife and children remained and for himself he took lodgings in London near to White-Hall whither his friends and occasions drew him very often and where he was as often visited by many of the Nobility and others of this Nation who used him in their Counsels of greatest consideration Nor did our own Nobility onely value and favour him but his acquaintance and friendship was sought for by most Ambassadours of forraign Nations and by many other strangers whose learning or business occasioned their stay in this Nation He was much importuned by many friends to make his constant residence in London but he still denyed it having setled his dear wife and children at Micham and near some friends that were bountiful to them and him for they God knows needed it and that you may the better now judge of the then present Condition of his minde and fortune I shall present you with an extract collected out of some few of his many Letters And the reason why I did not send an answer to your last weeks letter was because it found me under too great a sadness and at present 't is thus with me There is not one person but my self well of my family I have already lost half a Child and with that mischance of hers my wife is fallen into such a discomposure as would afflict her too extremely but that the sickness of all her children stupifies her of one of which in good faith I have not much hope and these meet with a fortune so ill provided for Physick and such relief that if God should ease us with burtals I know not how to perfome even that but I flatter my self with this hope that I am dying too for I cannot waste faster then by such griefs As for Aug. 10. From my hospital at Micham JOHN DONNE Thus he did bemoan himself And thus in other letters For we hardly discover a sin when it is but an omission of some good and no accusing act with this or the former I have often suspected my self to be overtaken which is with an over earnest desire of the next life and though I know it is not mearly a weariness of this because I had the same desire when I went with the tide and injoyed fairer hopes then I now doe yet I doubt worldly troubles have increased it 't is now Spring and all the pleasures of it displease me every other tree blossoms and I wither I grow older and not better my strength deminisheth and my lode grows heavier and yet I would fain be or do something but that I cannot tell what is no wonder in this time of my sadness for to chuse is to do but to be no part of my body is as to be nothing and so I am and shall so judge my self unless I could be so incorporated into a part of the world as by business to contribute some sustentation to the whole This I made account I began early when I understood the study of our Laws but was diverted by leaving that and imbracing the worst voluptuousness an hydroptique immoderate desire of humane learning and languages Beautiful ornaments indeed to men of great fortunes but mine was grown so low as to need an occupation which I thought I entered well into it when I subjected my self to such a service as I thought might exercise my poor abilities and there I stumbled and fell too and now I am become so little or such a nothing that I am not a subject good enough for one of my own letters I fear my present discontent does not proceed from a good root that I am so well content to be nothing that is dead But Sir though my fortune hath made me such as that I am rather a Sickness or a Disease of the world than any part of it and therefore neither love it nor life yet I would gladly live to become some such thing as you should not repent loving me Sir your own Soul cannot be more zealous of your good then I am and God who loves that zeal in me will not suffer you to doubt it you would pity me now if you saw me write for my pain hath drawn my head so much awry and holds it so that my eye cannot follow my pen. I therefore receive you into my Prayers with mine own weary soul and Commend my self to yours I doubt not but next week will bring you good news for I have either mending or dying on my side but If I do continue longer thus I shall have Comfort in this That my blessed Saviour in exercising his Justice upon my two worldly parts my Fortune and my Body reserves all his Mercy for that which most needs it my Soul that is I doubt too like a Porter which is very often near the gate and yet goes not out Sir I profess to you truly that my lothness to give over writing now seems to my self a sign that I shall write no more Sept. 7. Your poor friend and Gods poor patient JOHN DONNE By this you have seen a part of the picture of his narrow fortune and the perplexities of his generous minde and thus it continued with him for about two years all which time his family remained constantly at Micham and to which place he often retir'd himself and destined some dayes to a constant study of some points of Controversy betwixt the English and Roman Church and especially those of Supremacy and Allegiance and to that place and such studies he could willingly have wedded himself during his life but the earnest perswasion of friends became at last to be so powerful as to cause the removal of himself and family to London where Sir Robert Drewry a Gentleman of very noble estate and a more liberal mind assigned him a very choice and useful house rent-free next to his own in Drewry-lane and was also a cherisher of his studies and such a friend as sympathized with him and his in all their joy and sorrows Many of the Nobility were watchful and solicitous to the King for some secular preferment for him His Majesty had formerly both known and put a value upon his company and had also given him some hopes of a State-employment being alwayes much pleased when Mr. Donne attended him especially at his meals where there were usually many deep discourses of general learning and very often friendly debates or disputes of Religion betwixt his Majesty and those Divines whose places required their attendance on him at those times particularly the Dean of the Chappel who then was Bishop Montague the publisher of the learned and eloquent Works of his Majesty and the most reverend Doctor Andrews the late learned Bishop of
Layton Church and his many Acts of mercy to which he made answer saying They be good works if they be sprinkled with the blood of Christ and not otherwise After this Discourse he became more restless and his Soul seem'd to be weary of her earthly Tabernacle and this uneasiness became so visible that his Wife his three Neeces and Mr. Woodnot stood constantly about his Bed beholding him with sorrow and an unwillingness to lose the sight of him whom they could not hope to see much longer As they stood thus beholding him his Wife observ'd him to breath faintly and with much trouble and observ'd him to fall into a sudden Agony which so surpriz'd her that she fell into a sudden passion and requir'd of him to know how he did to which his answer was That he had past a Conflict with his last Enemy and had overcome him by the merits of his Master Jesus After which answer he look'd up and saw his Wife and Neeces weeping to an extremity and charg'd them If they lov'd him to withdraw into the next Room and there pray every one alone for him for nothing but their lamentations could make his death uncomfortable To which request their sighs and tears would not suffer them to make any reply but they yielded him a sad obedience leaving only with him Mr. Woodnot and Mr. Bostock Immediately after they had left him he said to Mr. Bostock Pray Sir open that door then lock into that Cabinet in which you may easily find my last Will and give it into my hand which being done he deliver'd it into the hand of Mr. Woodnot and said My old Friend I here deliver you my last Will in which you will find that I have made you my sole Executor for the good of my Wife and Neeces and I desire you to shew kindness to them as they shall need it I do not desire you to be just for I know you will be so for your own sake but I charge you by the Religion of our friendship to be careful of them And having obtain'd Mr. Woodnots promise to be so he said I am now ready to dye after which words he said Lord grant me mercy for the merits of my Jesus and now Lord receive my Soul And with those words breath'd forth his Divine Soul without any apparent disturbance Mr. Woodnot and Mr. Bostock attending his last breath and closing his eyes Thus he liv'd and thus he dy'd like a Saint unspotted of the World full of Alms-deeds full of Humility and all the examples of vertuous life which I cannot conclude better than with this borrowed observation All must to the cold Graves But the religious actions of the just Smell sweet in death and blossom in the dust Mr. George Herberts have done so to this and will doubtless do so to succeeding Generations FINIS THere is a Debt justly due to the memory of Mr. Herberts vertuous Wife a part of which I will endeavour to pay by a very short account of the remainder of her life which shall follow She continued his disconsolate Widow five years bemoaning her self and complaining That she had lost the delight of her eyes but more that she had lost the spiritual guide for her poor soul and would often say O that I had like holy Mary the Mother of Jesus treasur'd up all his sayings in my heart but since I have not been able to do that I will labour to live like him that where he now is I may be also And she would often say as the Prophet David for his son Absolon O that I had dyed for him Thus she continued mourning till time and conversation had so moderated her sorrows that she became the happy life of Sir Robert Cook of Higham in the County of Gloucester Knight And though he put a high value on the excellent accomplishments of her mind and body and was so like Mr. Herbert as not to govern like a Master but as an affectionate Husband yet she would even to him often take occasion to mention the name of Mr. George Herbert and say That name must live in her memory till she put off mortality By Sir Robert she had only one Child a Daughter whose parts and plentiful estate make her happy in this world and her well using of them gives a fair testimony that she will be so in that which is to come Mrs. Herbert was the Wife of Sir Robert eight years and liv'd his Widow nine all which time she took a pleasure in mentioning and commending the excellencies of Mr. George Herbert She dyed in the year 1663. and lies buried at Higham Mr. Herbert in his own Church under the Altar and cover'd with a Grave-stone without any inscription This Lady Cook had preserv'd many of Mr. Herberts private Writings which she intended to make publick but they and Higham house were burnt together by the late Rebels and by them was also burnt or destroyed a choice Library which Mr. Herbert had fastned with Chains in a sit room in Mountgomery Castle being by him dedicated to the succeeding Herberts that should become the owners of it He dyed without an Enemy if Andrew Melvin dyed before him FINIS LETTERS WRITTEN BY Mr. GEORGE HERBERT At his being in Cambridge With others to his Mother the Lady MAGDALEN HERBERT WRITTEN BY John Donne AFTERWARDS Dean of St. PAULS LONDON Printed by Tho Newcomb for Richard Marriott Sold by most Booksellers M. DC LXX Mr. GEORGE HERBERT to N. F. the TRANSLATOUR of Valdesso MY dear and deserving Brother your Valdesso I now return with many thanks and some notes in which perhaps you will discover some care which I forbear not in the midst of my griefs First for your sake because I would do nothing negligently that you commit unto me Secondly for the Authors â—akâ— whom I conceive to have been a true servant of God and to such and all that is theirs I â—â— dâ—â— gence Thirdly for the Churches sake to â—â— by Printing it I would have you consecrate it You owe the Church a debt and God hath put this into your hands as he sent the Fish with money to St. Peter to discharge it happily also with this as his thoughts are fruitful intending the honour of his servant the Author who being obscured in his own Countrey he would have to flourish in this land of light and region of the Gospel among his chosen It is true there are some things which I like not in him as my fragments will express when you read them nevertheless I wish you by all means to publish it for these three eminent things observable therein First that God in the midst of Popery should open the eyes of one to understand and express so clearly and excellently the intent of the Gospel in the acceptation of Christs righteousness as he sheweth through all his Considerations a thing strangely buried and darkned by the Adversaries and their great stumbling block Secondly the great honour
but on the Cross my cure Crucisie nature then and then implore All grace from him crucify'd there before When all is Cross and that Cross Anchor grown This seales a Catechism not a seal alone Under that little seal great gifts I send Both works prayers pawns fruits of a friend Oh may that Saint that rides on our great Seal To you that bear his name large bounty deal J. Donne In Sacram Anchoram Piscatoris Geo. Herbert Quod Crux nequibat fixa clavique additi Tenere Christum scilicet ne ascenderet Tuive Christum Although the Cross could not Christ here detain When nail'd unto 't but he ascends again Nor yet thy eloquence here keep him still But only whilest thou speak'st this Anchor will Nor canst thou be content unless thou to This certain Anchor add a seal and so The water and the earth both unto thee Do owe the Symbole of their certainty Let the world reel we and all ours stand sure This Holy Cable's from all storms secure G. Herbert I return to tell the Reader that besides these verses to his dear Mr. Herbert and that Hymne that I mentioned to be sung in the Quire of St Pauls Church he did also shorten and beguile many sad hours by composing other sacred Diâ—ties and he writ an Hymn on his death-bed which bears this title An Hymn to God my God in my sickness March 23. 1630. Since I am coming to that holy room Where with thy quire of Saints for ever more I shall be made thy musique as I come I tune my Instrument here at the dore And what I must do then think here before Since my Physitians by their loves are grown Cosmographers and I their map who lye Flat on this bed So in his purple wrapt receive me Lord By these his thorns give me his other Crown And as to other souls I preach'd thy Word Be this my text my Sermon to mine own That he may raise therefore the lord throws down If these fall under the censure of a soul whose too much mixture with earth makes it unfit to judge of these high raptures and illuminations let him know that many holy and devout men have thought the Soul of Prudentius to be most refined when not many dayes before his death he charged it to present his God each morning and evening with a new and spiritual song justified by the example of King David and the good King Hezekias who upon the renovation of his years paid his thankful vowes to Almighty God in a royal Hymn which he concludes in these words The Lord was ready to save therefore I will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the dayes of my life in the temple of my God The latter part of his life may be said to be a continued study for as he usually preached once a week if not oftner so after his Sermon he never gave his eyes rest till he had chosen out a new Text and that night cast his Sermon into a form and his Text into divisions and the next day betook himself to consult the Fathers and so commit his meditations to his memory which was excellent But upon Saturday he usually gave himself and his mind a rest from the weâ—â—y burthen of his weeks meditations and usually spent that day in visitation of friends or some other diversions of his thoughts and would say that he gave both his body and mind that refreshment that he might be enabled to do the work of the day following not faintly but with courage and chearfulness Nor was his age onely so industrious but in the most unsetled dayes of his youth his bed was not able to detain him beyond the hour of four in a morning and it was no common business that drew him out of his chamber till past ten All which time was employed in study though he took great liberty after it and if this seem strange it may gain a belief by the visible fruits of his labours some of which remain as testimonies of what is here writen for he left the resultance of 1400. Authors most of them abridged and analysed with his own hand he left also sixscore of his Sermons all written with his own hand also an exact and laborious Treatise concerning Self-murther called Biathanatos wherein all the Laws violated by that Act are diligently surveyed and judiciously censured a Treatise written in his younger dayes which alone might declare him then not onely perfect in the Civil and Canon Law but in many other such studies and arguments as enter not into the consideration of many that labour to be thought great Clerks and pretend to know all things Nor were these onely found in his study but all businesses that past of any publick consequence either in this or any of our neighbour nations he abbreviated either in Latine or in the Language of that Nation and kept them by him for useful memorials So he did the copies of divers Letters and cases of Conscience that had concerned his friends with his observations and solutions of them and divers other businesses of importance all particularly and methodically digested by himself He did prepare to leave the world before life left him making his will when no faculty of his soul was damp'd or made defective by pain or sickness or he surprized by a sudden apprehension of death but it was made with mature deliberation expressing himself an impartial father by making his childrens portions equal and a lover of his friends whom he remembred with Legacies fitly and discreetly chosen and bequeathed I cannot forbear a nomination of some of them for methinks they be persons that seem to challenge a recordation in this place as namely to his Brother-in-law Sir Th. Grimes he gave that striking Clock which he had long worn in his pocket to his dear friend and Executor Dr. King late Bishop of Chicester that model of gold of the Synod of Dcrt with which the States presented him at his last being at the Hague and the two Pictures of Padre Paulo and Fulgentio men of his acquaintance when he travelled Italy and of great note in that Nation for their remarkable learning To his ancient friend Dr. Brook that married him Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge he gave the Picture of the blessed Virgin and Joseph To Dr. Winniff who succeeded him in the Deanry he gave a Picture called the Sceleton To the succeeding Dean who was not then known he gave many necessaries of worth and useful for his house and also several Pictures and Ornaments for the Chappel with a desire that they might be registred and remain as a Legacy to his Successors To the Earls of Dorset and of Carlile he gave several Pictures and so he did to many other friends Legacies given rather to express his affection than to make any addition to their Estates but unto the Poor he was full of Charity and unto many others who by his constant and long
continued bounty might intitle themselves to be his Alms-people for all these he made provision and so largely as having then six children living might to some appear more than proportionable to his Estate I forbear to mention any more lest the Reader may think I trespass upon his patience but I will beg his favour to present him with the beginning and end of his Will In the Name of the blessed and glorious Trinity Amen I John Donne by the mercy of Christ Jesus and by the calling of the Church of England Priest being at this time in good health and perfect understanding praised be God therefore do hereby make my last Will and Testament in manner and form following First I give my gracious God an intire sacrifice of body and soul with my most humble thanks for that assurance which his blessed Spirit imprints in me now of the salvation of the one and the Resurrection of the other and for that constant and chearful resolution which the same Spirit hath establisht in me to live and dye in the Religion now professed in the Church of England In expectation of that Resurrection I desire my body may be buried in the most private manner that may be in that place of St. Pauls Church London that the now Residentiaries have at my request designed for that purpose c. And this my lâ—st Will and Testament made in the fear of God whose mercy I humbly beg and constantly relie upon in Jesus Christ and in perfect love and charity with all the world whose pardon I ask from the lowest of my servants to the highest of my Superiors written all with my own hand and my name subscribed to every page of which there are five in number Sealed Decem. 13. 1630. Nor was this blessed sacrifice of Charity expressed onely at his death but in his life also by a cheerful and frequent visitation of any friend whose mind was dejected or his fortune necessitous he was inquisitive after the wants of Prisoners and redeemed many from thence that lay for their Fees or small Debts he was a continual Giver to poor Scholars both of this and foreign Nations Besides what he gave with his own hand he usually sent a Servant or a discreet and trusty Friend to distribute his Charity to all the Prisons in London at all the Festival times of the year especially at the Birth and Resurrection of our Saviour He gave an hundred pounds at one time to an old Friend whom he had known live plentifully and by a too liberal heart and carelesness became decayed in his Estate and when the receiving of it was denied by the Gentlemans saying He wanted not for as there be some spirits so generous as to labour to conceal and endure a sad poverty rather than those blushes that attend the confession of it so there be others to whom Nature and Grace have afforded such sweet and compassionate souls as to pity and prevent the Distresses of Mankind which I have mentioned because of Dr. Donne's Reply whose Answer was I know you want not what will sustain nature for a little will do that but my desire is that you who in the dayes of your plenty have cheered and raised the hearts of so many of your dejected friends would now receive this from me and use it as a cordial for the cheering of your own and so it was received He was an happy reconciler of many differences in the Families of his Friends and Kindred which he never undertook faintly for such undertakings have usually faint effects and they had such a faith in his judgement and impartiality that he never advised them to any thing in vain He was even to her death a most dutiful Son to his Mother careful to provide for her supportation of which she had been destitute but that God raised him up to prevent her necessities who having sucked in the Religion of the Roman Church with her Mothers Milk spent her Estate in foreign Countreys to enjoy a liberty in it and died in his house but three Moneths before him And to the end it may appear how just a Steward he was of his Lord and Masters Revenue I have thought fit to let the Reader know that after his entrance into his Deaneâ—y as he numbred his years he at the foot of a private account to which God and his Angels were only witnesses with him computed first his Revenue then what was given to the Poor and other Pious Uses and lastly what rested for him and his he then blest each years poor remainder with a thankful Prayer which for that they discover a more than common Devotion the Reader shall partake some of them in his own words So all is that remains this year Deo Opt. Max benigno Largitori à meâ— ab iis Quibus haec à me reservantur Gloria gratia in aeternum Amen So that this year God hath blessed me and mine with Multiplicatae a sunt super Nos misericordiae tuae Domine Da Domine ut quae ex immensâ Bonitate tuâ— nobis elargiri Dignatus sis in quorumcunque Manus devenerint in tuam Semper cedant gloriam Amen In fine horum sex Annorum manet Quid habeo quod non accepi à Domino Largitur etiam ut quae largitus est Sua iterum fiant bono eorum usu ut Quemadmodum nec officiis hujus mundi Nec loci in quo me posuit dignitati nec Servis nec egenis in toto hujus anni Curriculo mihi conscius sum me defuisse Ita liberi quibus quae supersunt Supersunt grato animo ea accipiant Et beneficum authorem recognescant Amen But I return from my long Digression We left the Author sick in Essex where he was forced to spend much of that Winter by reason of his disability to remove from that place And having never for almost twenty years omitted his personal attendance on His Majesty in that month in which he was to attend and preach to him nor having ever been left out of the Roll and number of Lent-Preachers and there being then in January 1630. a report brought to London or raised there that Dr. Donne was dead That report gave him occasion to write this following Letter to a dear friend Sir This advantage you and my other friends have by my frequent fevers that I am so much the oftner at the gates of Heaven and this advantage by the solitude and close imprisonment that they reduce me to after that I am so much the oftner at my prayers in which I shall never leave out your happiness and I doubt not among his other blessings God will add some one to you for my prayers A man would almost be content to dye if there were no other benefit in death to hear of so much sorrow and so much good testimony from good men as I God be blessed for it did upon the report of my death yet I
perceive it went not through all for one writ to me that some and he said of my friends conceived I was not so ill as I pretended but withdrew my self to live at ease discharged of preaching It is an unfriendly and God knows an ill-grounded interpretation for I have alwayes been sorrier when I could not preach than any could be they could not hear me It hath been my desire and God may be pleased to grant it that I might dye in the Pulpit if not that yet that I might take my death in the Pulpit that is dye the sooner by occasion of those labours Sir I hope to see you presently after Candlemas about which time will fall my Lent-Sermon at Court except my Lord Chamberlain believe me to be dead and so leave me out of the Roll but as long as I live and am not speechless I would not willingly decline that service I have better leisure to write than you to read yet I would not willingly oppress you with too much Letter God bless you and your Son as I wish Your poor friend and servant in Christ Jesus J. Donne Before that month ended he was appointed to preach upon his old constant day the first Friday in Lent he had notice of it and had in his sickness so prepared for that imployment that as he had long thirsted for it so he resolved his weakness should not hinder his journey he came therefore to London some few dayes before his appointed day of preaching At his coming thither many of his friends who with sorrow saw his sickness had left him onely so much flesh as did onely cover his bones doubted his strength to perform that task and did therefore disswade him from undertaking it assuring him however it was like to shorten his life but he passionately denied their requests saying he would not doubt that that God who in so many weaknesses had assisted him with an unexpected strength would now withdraw it in his last employment professing an holy ambition to perform that sacred work And when to the amazement of some beholders he appeared in the Pulpit many of them thought he presented himself not to preach mortification by a living voice but mortality by a decayed body and dying face And doubtless many did secretly ask that question in Ezekiel Do these bones live or can that soul organize that tongue to speak so long time as the sand in that glass will move towards its centre and measure out an hour of this dying mans unspent life Doubtless it cannot and yet after some faint pauses in his zealous prayer his strong desires enabled his weak body to discharge his memory of his preconceived meditations which were of dying the Text being To God the Lord belong the issues from death Many that then saw his tears and heard his faint and hollow voice professing they thought the Text prophetically chosen and that Dr. Donne had preach't his own funeral Sermon Being full of joy that God had enabled him to perform this desired duty he hastened to his house out of which he never moved till like St. Stephen he was carried by devout men to his Grave The next day after his Sermon his strength being much wasted and his spirits so spent as indisposed him to business or to talk A friend that had often been a witness of his free and facetious discourse asked him Why are you sad To whom he replied with a countenance so full of cheerful gravity as gave testimony of an inward tranquillity of mind and of a soul willing to take a farewell of this world And said I am not sad but most of the night past I have entertained my self with many thoughts of several friends that have left me here and are gone to that place from which they shall not return And that within a few dayes I also shall go hence and be no more seen And my preparation for this change is become my nightly meditation upon my bed which my infirmities have now made restless to me But at this present time I was in a serious contemplation of the providence and goodness of God to me who am less than the least of his mercies and looking back upon my life past I now plainly see it was his hand that prevented me from all temporal employment and it was his Will that I should never settle nor thrive till I entred into the Ministry in which I have now liv'd almost twenty years I hope to his glory and by which I most humbly thank him I have been enabled to require most of those friends which shewed me kindness when my fortune was very low as God knows it was and as it hath occasioned the expression of my gratitude I thank God most of them have stood in need of my requital I have liv'd to be useful and comfortable to my good Father-in-law Sir George Moore whose patience God hath been pleased to exercise with many temporal Crosses I have maintained my own Mother whom it hath pleased God after a plentiful fortune in her younger dayes to bring to a great decay in her very old age I have quieted the Consciences of many that have groaned under the burthen of a wounded spirit whose prayers I hope are available for me I cannot plead innocency of life especially of my youth But I am to be judged by a merciful God who is not willing to see what I have done amiss And though of my self I have nothing to present to him but sins and misery yet I know he looks not upon me now as I am of my self but as I am in my Saviour and hath given me even at this time some testimonies by his Holy Spirit that I am of the number of his Elect I am therefore full of joy and shall dye in peace I must here look so far back as to tell the Reader that at his first return out of Essex to preach his last Sermon his old Friend and Physitian Dr. Fox a man of great worth came to him to consult his health and that after a sight of him and some queries concerning his distempers he told him That by Cordials and drinking milk twenty dayes together there was a probability of his restauration to health but he passionately denied to drink it Nevertheless Dr. Fox who loved him most intirely wearied him with sollicitations till he yielded to take it for ten dayes at the end of which time he told Dr. Fox he had drunk it more to satisfie him than to recover his health and that he would not drink it ten dayes longer upon the best moral assurance of having twenty years added to his life for he loved it not and that he was so far from fearing death which is the King of terrors that he longed for the day of his dissolution It is observed that a desire of glory or commendation is rooted in the very nature of man and that those of the severest and most mortified lives though they may
year of his Age he proceeded Master of Arts and at that time read in Latine three Lectures â—e Oculo wherein he having described the Form the Motion the curious composure of the Eye and demonstrated how of those very many every humour and nerve performs its distinct Office so as the God of Order hath appointed without mixture or confusion and all this to the advantage of man to whom it is given not onely as the bodies guide but whereas all other of his senses require time to inform the Soul this in an instant apprehends and warns him of danger teaching him in the very eyes of others to discover wit folly love and hatred After these observations he fell to dispute this Optique question VVhether we see by the Emission of the Beams from within or Reception of the Species from without and after that and many other like learned disquisitions in the Conclusion of his Lectures he took a fair occasion to beautifie his discourse with a Commendation of the blessing and benefit of Seeing By which we do not only discover Natures Secrets but with a continued content for the eye is never weary of seeing behold the great Light of the VVorld and by it discover the Fabrick of the Heavens and both the Order and Motion of the Celestial Orbs nay that if the eye look but downward it may rejoyce to behold the bosome of the Earth our common Mother embroidered and adorned with numberless and various Flowers which man sees daily grow up to perfection and then silently moralize his own condition who in a short time like those very Flowers decayes withers and quickly returns again to that Earth from which both had thei first being These were so exactly debated and so Rhetorically heightned as among other admirers caused that learned Italian Albericus Gentilis then Professor of the Civil Law in Oxford to call him Henrice mi ocelle which dear expression of his was also used by divers of Sir Henry's dearest Friends and by many other persons of Note during his stay in the University But his stay there was not long at least not so long as his â—riends once intended for the year after Sir Henry proceeded Master of Arts his father whom Sir Henry did never mention without this or some like reverential expression as That good man my father or My father the best of men about that time this good man changed this for a better life leaving to Sir Henry as to his other younger sons a rent-charge of an hundred Mark a yearâ— to be paid for ever out of some one of his Mannors of a much greater value And here though this good man be dead yet I wish a Circumstance or two that concern him may not be buried without a Relation which I shall undertake to do for that I suppose they may so much concern the Reader to know that I may promise my self a pardon for a short Digression IN the year of our Redemption 1553. Nicholas Wotton Dean of Canterbury whom I formerly mentioned being then Ambassador in France dream'd that his Nephew this Thomas Wotton was inclined to be a party in such a project as if he were not suddenly prevented would turn both to the loss of his life and ruine of his Family Doubtless the good Dean did well know that common Dreams are but a senseless paraphrase on our waking thoughts or of the business of the day past or are the result of our over ingaged affections when we betake our selves to rest and that the observation of them may turn to silly Superstitions as they too often do But though he might know this and might also believe that Prophesies are ceased yet doubtless he could not but consider that all Dreams are not to be neglected or cast away and did therefore rather lay this Dream aside than intend totally to lose it for that dreaming the same again the Night following when it became a double Dream like that of Pharaoh of which dreams the learned have made many observations and that it had no dependance â—n is waking thoughts much less on the desires of his heart then he did more seriously consider it and remembred that Almighty God was pleased in a Dream to reveal and to assure Monica the Mother of St. Austin that he her son for whom she wept so bitterly and prayed so much should at last become a Christian This the good Dean considered and considering also that Almighty God though the causes of Dreams be often unknown hath even in these latter times by a certain illumination of the soul in sleep discovered many things that humane wisdom could not foresee Upon these considerations he resolved to use so prudent a remedy by way of prevention as might introduce no great inconvenience to either party And to that end he wrote to the Queen 't was Queen Mary and besought her That she would cause his Nephew Thomas Wotton to be sent for out of Kent and that the Lords of her Council might interrogate him in some such feigned questions as might give a colour for his Commitment into a favourable Prison declaring that he would acquaint her Majesty with the true reason of his request when he should next become so happy as to see and speak to her Majesty 'T was done as the Dean desired and in Prison I must leave Mr. Wotton till I have told the Reader what followed At this time a Marriage was concluded betwixt our Queen Mary and Philip King of Spain And though this was concluded with the advice if not by the persuasion of her Privy Council as having many probabilities of advantage to this Nation yet divers persons of a contrary perswasion did not onely declare against it but also raised Forces to oppose it believing as they said it would be a means to bring England under subjection to Spain and make those of this Nation slaves to strangers And of this number Sir Thomas Wyat of Boxley-Abby in Kent betwixt whose Family and the Family of the Wottons there had been an ancient and intire friendship was the principal Actor who having perswaded many of the Nobility and Gentry especially of Kent to side with him and being defeated and taken Prisoner was legally arraigned condemned and lost his life So did the Duke of Suffolk and divers others especially many of the Gentry of Kent who were there in several places executed as Wyats assistants And of this number in all probability had Mr. Wotton been if he had not been confin'd for though he was not ignorant that another mans Treason makes it mine by concealing it yet he durst confess to his Uncle when he returned into England and came to visit him in Prison that he had more than an intimation of Wyats intentions and thought he had not continued actually innocent if his Uncle had not so happily dream'd him into a Prison out of which place when he was delivered by the same hand that caused his Commitment they both
by them namely the cursed crew of Atheists This also is one of those points which I am desirous you should handle most effectually and strain your self therein to all points of motion and affection as in that of the Brownists to all strength and sinews of Reason This is a sort moâ— dâ—mnable and yet by the general suspition of the world at this day most common The causes of it which are in the parties themselves although you handle in the beginning of the fifth Book â— yet here again they may be touched but the occasions of help and furtherance which by the Reformers have been yielded unto them are as I conceive two namely Senceless Preaching and disgracing of the Ministry for how should not men dare to impugn that which neither by force of Reason nor by Authority of Persons is maintained But in the parties themselves these two causes I conceive of Atheism 1. more aboundance of Wit then Judgment and of Witty than Judicious Learning whereby they are more inclined to contradict any thing than willing to be informed of the Truth They are not therefore men of sound Learning for the most part but Smatterers neither is their kind of Dispute so much by force of Argument as by Scoffing which humour of scoffing and turning matters most serious into merriment is now become so common as we are not to marvail what the Prophet means by the Seat of Scorners nor what the Apostles by foretelling of Scorners to come for our own age hath verified their speech unto us which also may be an Argument against these Scoffers and Atheists themselves seeing it hath been so many ages ago foretold that such men the later dayes of the world should afford which could not be done by any other Spirit save that whereunto things future and present are alike And even for the main question of the Resurrection whereat they stick so mightily was it not plainly foretold that men should in the latter times say Where is the Promise of his Coming Against the Creation the Ark and divers other points exceptions are said to be taken the ground whereof is superfluity of Wit without ground of Learning and Judgment A second cause of Atheism is Sensuality which maketh men desirous to remove all stops and impediments of their wicked life among which because Religion is the chiefest so as neither in this life without shame they can persist therein nor if that be true without Torment in the life to come they therefore whet their wits to annihilate the joys of Heaven wherein they see if any such be they can have no part and likewise the pains of Hell wherein their portion must needs be very great They labour therefore not that they may not deserve those pains but that deserving them there may be no such pains to seize upon them But what conceit can be imagined more base than that man should strive to persuade himself even against the secret Instinct no doubt of his own Mind that his Soul is as the Soul of a Beast mortal and corruptible with the Body Against which barbarous Opinion their own Atheism is a very strong Argument For were not the Soul a Nature separable from the Body how could it enter into discourse of things meerly Spiritual and nothing at all pertaining to the Body Surely the Soul were not able to conceive any thing of Heaven no not so much as to dispute against Heaven and against God if there were not in it somewhat Heavenly and derived from God The last which have received strength and encouragement from the Reformers are Papists against whom although they are most bitter Enemies yet unwittingly they have given them great advantage For what can any Enemy rather desire than the Breach and Dissention of those which are Confederates against him Wherein they are to remember that if our Communion with Papists in some few Ceremonies do so much strengthen them as is pretended how much more doth this Division and Rent among our selves especially seeing it is maintained to be not in light matters onely but even in matter of Faith and Salvation Which over-reaching Speech of theirs because it is so open an advantage for the Barrowist and the Papist we are to wish and hope for that they will acknowledge it to have been spoken rather in heat of Affection than with soundness of Judgment and that though their exceeding love to that Creature of Discipline which themselves have bred nourished and maintained their mouth in commendation of her did so often overflow From hence you may proceed but the means of connexion I leave to your self to another discourse which I think very meet to be handled either here or elsewhere at large the parts whereof may be these 1. That in this cause between them and us men are to sever the proper and essential points and controversy from those which are accidental The most essential and proper are these two overthrow of Episcopal and erection of Presbyterial Authority But in these two points whosoever joyneth with them is accounted of their number whosoever in all other points agreeth with them yet thinketh the Authority of Bishops not unlawful and of Elders not necessary may justly be severed from their retinue Those things therefore which either in the Persons or in the Laws and Orders themselves are faulty may be complained on acknowledged and amended yet they no whit the nearer their main purpose for what if all errours by them supposed in our Liturgy were amended even according to their own hearts desire if Non-residence Pluralities and the like were utterly taken away are their Lay-Elders therefore presently Authorized or their Soveraign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction established But even in their complaining against the outward and accidental matters in Church-government they are many wayes faulty 1. In their end which they propose to themselves For in Declaming against Abuses their meaning is not to have them redressed but by disgracing the present State to make way for their own Discipline As therefore in Venice if any Senatour should discouse against the Power of their Senate as being either too Soveraign or too weak in Government with purpose to draw their Authority to a Moderation it might well be suffered but not so if it should appear he spake with purpose to induce another State by depraving the present So in all Causes belonging either to Church or Commonwealth we are to have regard what mind the Complaining part doth bear whether of Amendment or Innovation and accordingly either to suffer or suppress it Their Objection therefore is frivolous Why may not men speak against Abuses Yes but with desire to cure the part affected not to destroy the whole 2. A second fault is in their Manner of Complaining not only because it is for the most part in bitter and reproachful Terms but also it is to the Common people who are Judges incompetent and insufficient both to determine any thing amiss and for want of Skill
those seven Brothers George Herbert spent much of his Childhood in a sweet content under the eye and care of his prudent mother and the tuition of a Chaplain or Tutor to him and two of his Brothers in her own Family for she was then a Widow where he continued till about the age of twelve years and being at that time well instructed in the Rules of Grammar he was not long after commended to the care of Dr. Neale who was then Dean of Westminster and by him to the care of Mr. Ireland who was then chief Master of that School where the beauties of his pretty behaviour and wit shin'd and became so eminent and lovely in this his innocent age that he seem'd to be marked out for piety and to become the care of Heaven and of a particular Angel to guard and guide him And thus he continued in that School till he came to be perfect in the learned Languages and especially in the Greek Tongue in which he after prov'd an excellent Critick About the age of Fifteen he being then a Kings Scholar was elected out of that School for Trinity Colledge in Cambridge to which place he was transplanted about the year 1608. And his prudent mother well knowing that he might easily lose or lessen that virtue and innocence which her advice and example had planted in his mind did therefore procure the generous and liberal Dr. Nevil who was then Dean of Canterbury and Master of that Colledge to take him into his particular care and provide him a Tutor which he did most gladly undertake for he knew the excellencies of his Mother and how to value such a friendship This was the method of his Education till he was setled in Cambridge where we will leave him in his Study till I have paid my promis'd account of his excellent mother and I will endeavour to make it short I have told her birth her Marriage and the Number of her Children and have given some short account of them I shall next tell the Reader that her husband dyed when our George was about the Age of four years and that she continued twelve years a Widow that she then maried hapily to a Noble Gentleman the brother and Heir of the Lord Danvers Earl of Danby who did highly value both her person and most excellent endowments of her mind In this time of her Widowhood she being desirous to give Edward her eldest son such advantages of Learning and other education as might suit his birth and fortune and thereby make him the more fit for the service of his Country did at his being of a fit age remove from Montgomery Castle with him and some of her yonger sons to Oxford and having entred Edward into Queens Colledge and provided him a fit Tutor she commended him to his Care yet she continued there with him and still kept him in a moderate awe of herself and so much under her own eye as to see and converse with him dayly but she managed this power over him without any such rigid sourness as might make her company a torment to her Child but with such a sweetness and complyance with the recreations and pleasure of youth as did incline him willingly to spend much of his time in the company of his dear and careful mother which was to her great content for she would often say That as our bodies take a nourishment sutable to the meat on which we feed so our souls do as insensibly take in vice by the example or Conversation with wicked Company and would therefore as often say That ignorance of Vice was the best preservation of Vertue and that the very knowledge of wickedness was as tinder to inflame and kindle sin and to keep it burning For these reasons she indeared him to her own Company and continued with him in Oxford four years in which time her great and harmless wit her chearful gravity and her oblieging behaviour gain'd her an acquaintance and friendship with most of any eminent worth or learning that were at that time in or near that University and particularly with Mr. John Donne who then came accidentally to that place in this time of her being there it was that John Done who was after Doctor Donne and Dean of Saint Pauls London and he at his leaving Oxford writ and left there a Character of the Beauties of her body and minde of the first he sayes No Spring nor Summer-Beauty has such grace As I have seen in an Autumnal face Of the latter he sayes In all her words to every hearer fit You may at Revels or at Council sit The rest of her Character may be read in his printed Poems in that Elegy which bears the name of the Autumnal Beauty For both he and she were then past the meridian of mans life This Amity begun at this time and place was not Amity that polluted their Souls but an Amity made up of a chain of sutable inclinations and vertues an Amity like that of St. Chrysostoms to his dear and vertuous Olimpias whom in his Letters he calls his Saint Or an Amity indeed more like that of St. Hierom to his Paula whose affection to her was such that he turn'd Poet in his old Age and then made her Epitaph wishing all his Body were turn'd into Tongues that he might declare her just praises to posterity And this Amity betwixt her and Mr. Donne was begun in a happy time for him he being then about the Fortieth year of his Age which was some years before he entred into Sacred Orders A time when his necessities needed a daily supply for the support of his Wife seven Children and a Family And in this time she prov'd one of his most bountiful Benefactors and he as grateful an acknowledger of it You may take one testimony of what I have said of them from this following Letter and Sonnet MADAM YOur Favours to me are every where I use them and have them I enjoy them at London and leave them there and yet find them at Micham Such Riddles as these become things unexpressible and such is your goodness I was almost sorry to find your Servant here this day because I was loth to have any witness of my not coming home last Night and indeed of my coming this Morning But my not coming was excusable because earnest business detain'd me and my coming this day is by the example of your St. Mary Magdalen who rose early upon Sunday to seek that which she lov'd most and so did I. And from her and my self I return such thanks as are due to one to whom we owe all the good opinion that they whom we need most have of us by this Messenger and on this good day I commit the inclosed Holy Hymns and Sonnets which for the matter not the workmanship have yet escap'd the fire to your judgment and to your protection too if you think them worthy of it and I have appointed this inclosed