prefented them with objects of diverfion, and his prefented him with nothing but fresh objects of forrow, in beholding many helpless children, a narrow fortune, and a confideration of the many cares and cafualties that attend their education. In this time of fadnefs he was importuned by the grave benchers of Lincoln's Inn (who were once the companions and friends of his youth), to accept of their lecture, which, by reafon of Dr. Gataker's removal from thence, was then void; of which he accepted, being moft glad to renew his intermitted friendship with those whom he fo much loved, and where he had been a Saul, though not to perfecute Chriftianity, or to deride it, yet in his irregular youth to neglect the visible practice of it; there to become a Paul, and preach falvation to his beloved brethren. And now his life was as a shining light among his old friends, now he gave an ocular teftimony of the ftrictnefs and regularity of it; now he might fay as St. Paul advifeth his Corinthians, "Be ye followers of me, as I follow "Fudit verba (omni quantò magè dulcia melle ?) Mr. Walton tells us, that Dr. Denne was chofen preacher to the Society of Lincoln's Inn, upon the removal of Mr. Thomas Gataker. But this is a mistake: for Mr. Gataker, who is improperly flyled Doctor, having never taken any degree but that of Bachelor of Divinity, left Lincoln's Inn for the rectory of Rotherhithe in Surrey, in 1611; fix years before Dr. Donne was chofen there.-Mr.THOMAS GATAKER, a folid, judicious, and truly pious divine, highly efteemed by Salmafius and other learned foreigners, was the author of a treatise, once much read, "Of the Nature and Ufe of Lots, &c." and was juftly celebrated for his critical knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew languages. Being one of the Affembly of Divines appointed by Parliament in 1642, he conducted himfelf in that department with fingular prudence and moderation. In the Afsembly's Annotations on the Bible, he executed with uncommon ability that divifion which included Ifaiah, Jeremiah, and Lamentations. His Explication of Jeremiah x. 12, fubjected him to the fevere caftigations of the famous aftrologer William Lily, against whom he wrote "A Difcourfe Apologetical, wherein Lilie's' lewd and loud lies in his Merlin or Pafquil for the year 1654, are clearly laid open, &c." His houfe bore the refemblance of a college, where many young men, foreigners as well as natives, continually attended to receive inftructions from his lectures. The moft approved of his works are "A Difsertation upon the Style of the New Teftament." "A Tract de Nomine Tetragrammato-Adverfaria Mifcellanea." Prefixed to this laft work, pubfifhed by his fon, is his own life, written by himself. "Chrift, and walk as ye have me for an example." Not the example of a bufy-body, but of a contemplative, a harmless, a humble, and a holy life and converfation. The love of that noble Society was exprefsed to him many ways; for, befides fair lodgings that were fet apart and newly furnished for him with all necefsaries, other courtefies were alfo daily added; indeed fo many, and fo freely, as if they meant their gratitude fhould exceed his merits: And in this love-ftrife of defert and liberality, they continued for the fpace of two years, he preaching faithfully and conftantly to them, and they liberally requiting him. About which time the Emperor of Germany died, and the Palgrave, who had lately married the Lady Elizabeth, the King's only daughter, was elected and crowned King of Bohemia; the unhappy beginning of many miseries in that nation'. King James, whofe motto (Beati pacifici) did truly speak the very thoughts of his heart, endeavoured firft to prevent, and after to compofe the difcords of that difcomposed state; and amongst other his endeavours, did then fend the Lord Hay ", Earl of Doncaster, his Ambassador to those unsettled Princes; and by a fpecial command from his Majefty, Dr. Donne was appointed to afsist and attend that employment to the Princes of the Union; for which the Earl was moft glad, who had always put a great value on him, and taken a great pleasure in his converfation and difcourfe: And his friends of Lincoln's Inn were as glad; for they feared that his immoderate ftudy, and fadness for his wife's death, would, as Jacob faid, "make his days few,' and respecting his bodily health, "evil" too; and of this there were many vifible figns. " At his going he left his friends of Lincoln's Inn, and they Upon the death of the Emperor Matthias, his nephew Ferdinand, who fucceeded him in the imperial dignity, caufed himself to be proclaimed King of Bohemia. The States of Bohemia confidering their crown as elective, made a tender of it to Frederic, Elector Palatine, fonin-law to the King of England, who immediately accepted the offer, and marched all his forces into Bohemia in fupport of his new fubjects. t James was not aware of Queen Elizabeth's maxim, or at least he was not defirous of practifing it, that "the people of England are more go"vernable in times of war than in times of peace." Yet, notwithstanding his well-known pacific difpofition, the adulation of a Scotch poet (Alexander Boyde) hath compared him to Minerva for his wifdom, and to "Mars for his warlike qualities." Primus in orbe Deus, qui jungis Pallada Marti, Et facis ut titulis cedat uterque tuis. Of whom fee Lord Clarendon's Hiftory of the Rebellion, vol. I. p. 61, 8vo edit. 1705. He thus mentions his journey in a Latin letter to Sir Henry Goodyere. "Elucefcit mihi noya nec inopportuna nec inutilis (paulò quàm "optâram him with many reluctations; for though he could not fay as St. Paul to his Ephefians, "Behold you to whom I have "preached the kingdom of God fhall from henceforth fee my "face no more;" yet, he believing himself to be in a confumption queftioned, and they feared it; all concluding that his troubled mind, with the help of his unintermitted ftudies, haftened the decays of his weak body: But God, who is the God of all wifdom and goodness, turned it to the best; for this employment (to fay nothing of the event of it) did not only divert him from thofe too ferious ftudies and fad thoughts, but feemed to give him a new life, by a true occafion of joy, to be an eye-witnefs of the health of his moft dear and most honoured miftrefs, the Queen of Bohemia, in a foreign nation, and to be witnefs of that gladnefs which fhe exprefsed to fee him: Who, having formerly known him a courtier, was much joyed to fee him in a canonical habit, and more glad to be an ear-witnefs of his excellent and powerful preaching. About fourteen months after his departure out of England, he returned to his friends of Lincoln's Inn, with his forrows moderated and his health improved, and there betook himself to his conftant courfe of preaching. About a year after his return out of Germany, Dr. Carey was made Bishop of Exeter, and by his removal the Deanery of St. Paul's being vacant, the King fent to Dr. Donne, and appointed him to attend him at dinner the next day. When his "optâram fortafsis magis inhonora) occafio extera vifendi regna, liberos"que perquam amantifsimæ conjugis pignora cæteraque hujus auræ "oblectamenta aliquot ad annos relinquendi." Upon this occafion he preached a Sermon of valediction at Lincoln's Inn, April 18, 1619, from whence an extract is inferted in a preceding note. y This unfortunate princefs, from her amiable and engaging manners, was called "The Queen of Hearts." "God hath now at laft caft her "into an ocean of calamities, in which the ftill remains a floating ex"ample to other princes of the inflability of fortune, as she did in her profperity, of civility and goodness." (Osborne.)-In Dr. Donne's Poems is an epithalamium or marriage-fong on the Lady Elizabeth and Count Palatine being married on St. Valentine's Day: I quote the be ginning of it as a specimen of Donne's Poetry. "Hail Bishop Valentine, whofe day is this, "All the aire is thy diocis, "And other birds are thy parishioners, "Thou marryeft every yeare "The lirique larke, and the grave whifpering dove, "The household bird, with the red ftomacher." Z VALENTINE CAREY, Mafter of Chrift's College, in Cambridge, and Dean of St. Paul's, is faid to have been born in Northumberland. He was confecrated Bishop of Exeter, Nov. 20, 1620, and having well go, verned this church about fix years, he died June 10, 1626. Majefty was fat down, before he had eat any meat, he faid after his pleasant manner, "Dr. Donne, I have invited you to dinner, "and though you fit not down with me, yet I will carve to you of a difh that I know you love well; for knowing you "love London, I do therefore make you Dean of Paul's; "and when I have dined, then do you take your beloved difh "home to your ftudy, fay grace there to yourself, and much "good may it do you." Immediately after he came to his Deanery, he employed workmen to repair and beautify the chapel, fuffering, as holy David once vowed, "His eyes and temples to take no rest till "he had first beautified the house of God." The next quarter following, when his father-in-law, Sir George Moor (whom time had made a lover and admirer of him) came to pay him the conditioned fum of twenty pounds, he refused to receive it, and faid, as good Jacob did, when he heard his beloved fon Joseph was alive," It is enough; you "have been kind to me and mine; I know your prefent con"dition is such as not to abound, and I hope mine is or will "be fuch as not to need it; I will therefore receive no more "from you upon that contract," and in teftimony of it freely gave him up his bond. Immediately after his admifsion into his Deanery, the Vicarage of St. Dunstan in the Weft, London, fell to him by the death of Dr. White", the advowson of it having been given to him long before by his honourable friend, Richard Earl of Dorfet, then the patron, and confirmed by his brother, the a ISAAC WALTON, our biographer, was an inhabitant of this parish, and thus became intimately acquainted with Dr. Donne. b Dr. THOMAS WHITE, much admired as a preacher, died March 1, 1623, and was buried in his chancel of the church of St. Dunstan in the Weft. Having founded a lecture in moral philofophy at Oxford, and being alfo diffinguished for many other charitable benefactions, the heads of the univerfity directed an oration to be publicly delivered, on occafion of his death, by William Price, the first reader of that lecture. This oration, with feveral copies of verfes written upon the fame fubject, was printed under the title of "Schola Moralis Philofophiæ Oxon. in funere Whiti pullata. Oxon. 1624,” 4to. (Wood's Ath. Ox.) с "Principibus placuifse viris non ultima laus eft.” HOR. The character of this nobleman, RICHARD (SACKVILLE) Earl of Dorfet, the friend and patron of Dr. Donne, is thus delineated by the pen of his lady, Anne, daughter and heir of George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, in the manufcript which he has left, containing the hif tory of her life. 66 'He was,' fays the," in his own nature of a juft mind, of a fweet difpofition, and very valiant in his own perfon: fie "had a great advantage in his breeding by the wisdom and difcretion "of his grandfather, Thomas Earl of Dorfet, Lord High Treafurer of England, who was then held one of the wifeft men of that time; by "which means he was fo good a fcholar in all manner of learning, that late deceased Edward, both of them men of much ho nour. By thefe, and another ecclefiaftical endowment which fell to him about the same time, given to him formerly by the Earl of Kent, he was enabled to become charitable to the poor and kind to his friends, and to make fuch provifion for his children, that they were not left fcandalous, as relating to their or his profeffion and quality. The next parliament, which was within that present year, he was chofen Prolocutor to the Convocation, and about that time was appointed by his Majefty, his moft gracious mafter, to preach very many occafional fermons, as at St. Paul's Crofs and other places; all which employments he performed to the admiration of the representative body of the whole clergy of this nation. He was once, and but once, clouded with the King's difpleasure, and it was about this time; which was occafioned by fome malicious whisperer, who told his Majesty that Dr. Donne had put on the general humour of the pulpits, and was become bufy in infinuating a fear of the King's inclining to Popery, and a diflike of his government, and particularly for the King's then turning the Evening Lectures into catechifing, and expounding the Prayer of our Lord, and of the Belief and Commandments. His Majefty was the more inclinable to believe this, for that a perfon of nobility and great note, betwixt whom "in his youth when he lived in the University of Oxford, there was 66 none of the young nobility then ftudents there, that excelled him. He "was alfo a good patriot to his country, and generally well beloved in "it, much effeemed in all the parliaments that fat in his time; and fo great a lover of scholars and foldiers, as that with an excessive bounty "towards them, or indeed any of worth that were in diftrefs, he did "much diminish his eftate: As alfo, with excessive prodigality in housekeeping and other noble ways at court, as tilting, masking, and the "like; Prince Henry being then alive, who was much addicted to ⚫ thofe noble exercises, and of whom he was much beloved." 66 (Collins's Peerage, vol. II. p. 194, 195.) This nobleman, EDWARD (SACKVILLE) Earl of Dorfet, was entrufted with the command of the English forces which were fent to the affifiance of the King of Bohemia in 1620; and in the next year was appointed Ambassador to the court of France. Of the melancholy catastrophe of a duel with his intimate friend Lord Bruce, fee The Guardians, No. 129. 133. During the civil wars he difiinguifhed himfelf by his loyalty to Charles I. with whofe death he was fo deeply affected, that after that event he never went out of his own house. He died July 17, 1652. • On this occafion he fpoke a Latin oration as his inauguration fpeech, which is extant in his "Poems, &c. 8vo, London, 1719." Dr. Jofeph Hall preached the Latin fermon on the opening of this Convocation, which was held in 1624, and in which large fubfidies were granted by the clergy to the King. 3 |