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 the manner and form following:

First, I give my gracious God an entire 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 cheerful resolution which the same Spirit hath established in me to live and die 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. Paul's Church, London, that the now Residentiaries have at my request designed for that purpose, &c.

And this my last Will and Testament, made in the fear of God, (whose mercy I humbly beg, and constantly rely 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.

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Sealed Decemb. 13, 1630.

Nor was this blefsed facrifice of charity exprefsed only at his death, but in his life alfo, by a cheerful and frequent visitation any friend whofe mind was dejected, or his fortune necessitous; he was inquifitive after the wants of prisoners and redeemed many from prison that lay for their fees or small debts; he was a continual giver to poor fcholars, both of this and foreign nations. Befides what he gave with his own hand, he ufually fent a fervant, or a difcreet and trufty friend, to diftribute his charity to all the prifons in London, at all the festival times of the year, efpecially at the birth and refurrection of our Saviour. He gave a hundred pounds at one time to an old friend, whom he had known live plentifully, and by a too liberal heart and carelefsnefs, became decayed in his eftate; and when the receiving of it was denied, by the gentleman faying, "He wanted not;"-for the reader may note, that as there be fome fpirits fo generous as to labour to conceal and endure a fad poverty rather than expofe themselves to those blushes that attend the confefsion of it, fo there be others to whom nature and grace have afforded fuch fweet and compafsionate fouls, as to pity and prevent the diftrefses of mankind, which I have mentioned because of Dr. Donne's reply, whofe answer was, -“I know you want not what will fuftain nature, for a little "will do that; but my defire is, that you, who in the days of

"your plenty have cheered and raifed the hearts of fo many "of your dejected friends, would now receive this from me, "and ufe it as a cordial for the cheering of your own:" And upon these terms it was received. He was a happy reconciler of many differences in the families of his friends and kindred (which he never undertook faintly, for fuch undertakings have ufually faint effects), and they had fuch a faith in his judgment and impartiality, that he never advised them to any thing in vain. He was, even to her death, a most dutiful fon to his mother, careful to provide for her fupportation, of which the had been deftitute, but that God raised him up to prevent her necefsities, who having fucked in the religion of the Roman Church with her mother's milk, fpent her eftate in foreign countries, to enjoy a liberty in it, and died in his houfe but three months before him.

And to the end it may appear how juft a fteward he was of his Lord and Mafter's revenue, I have thought fit to let the reader know, that after his entrance into his Deanery, as he numbered 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 ufes; and laftly, what refted for him and his; and, having done that, he then blefsed each year's poor remainder with a thankful prayer: which, for that they difcover a more than common devotion, the reader fhall partake fome of them in his own words:

"So that this year God hath blefsed me and mine with

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"Nec loci in quo me pofuit dignitati, nec
"Servis, nec egenis, in toto hujus anni
"Curriculo mihi confcius fum me defuifse;
"Ita et liberi, quibus quæ fuperfunt,
"Superfunt, grato animo ea accipiant,
"Et beneficum authorem recognofcant.
Amen."

But I return from my long digrefsion.We left the author fick in Essex, where he was forced to spend much of that winter, by reafon of his difability to remove from that place; and having never for almoft twenty years omitted his perfonal attendance on his Majefty 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 occafion to write the 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 oftener at the gates "of heaven; and this advantage by the folitude and close im"prisonment that they reduce me to after, that I am so much "the oftener at my prayers, in which I fhall never leave out "your happinefs, and I doubt not among his other blessings, "God will add fome one to you for my prayers. A man would

death of

almost be content to die, if there were no other benefit in "death, to hear of fo much forrow and fo much good teftimony "from good men as I (God be blefsed for it) did upon the report my ; yet I perceive it went not through all, for "one writ to me that fome (and he faid of my friends) con"ceived I was not fo ill as I pretended, but withdrew myself "to live at ease, discharged of preaching. It is an unfriendly, "and, God knows, an ill-grounded interpretation; for I have "always been forrier when I could not preach, than any could

be they could not hear me. It hath been my defire, and God "may be pleafed to grant it, that I might die in the pulpit; if "not that, yet that I might take my death in the pulpit; that "is, die the fooner by occafion of those labours. Sir, I hope "to fee you presently after Candlemas, about which time will "fall my Lent-fermon at court, except my Lord Chamberlain "believe me to be dead, and fo leave me out of the roll; but "as long as I live, and am not fpeechlefs, I would not wil"lingly decline that fervice. I have better leisure to write "than you to read, yet I would not willingly oppress you with "too much letter. God fo blefs you and your fón, as I "wish to

"Your poor friend,

"And fervant,in Chrift Jefus,
"J. DONNE."

Before that month ended he was appointed to preach upon his old conftant day, the first Friday in Lent: he had notice of it, and had in his fickness fo prepared for that employment, that as he had long thirfted for it, fo he refolved his weakness fhould not hinder his journey; he came therefore to London fome few days before his appointed day of preaching. At his coming thither, many of his friends (who with forrow faw his fickness had left him but so much flesh as did only cover his bones) doubted his ftrength to perform that task, and did therefore difsuade him from it, afsuring him, however, it was likely to shorten his life; but he pafsionately denied their requests, faying, "He would not doubt that that God, who in fo many "weaknesses had affifted him with an unexpected ftrength, "would now withdraw it in his laft employment, profefsing an holy ambition to perform that facred work." And when, to the amazement of fome beholders, he appeared in the pulpit, many of them thought he prefented himself not to preach mortification by a living voice, but mortality by a decayed body and a dying face. And doubtlefs many did fecretly afk that queftion in Ezekiel, (chap. xxxvii. 3.) "Do these bones "live? or, can that foul organize that tongue to speak fo long "time as the fand in that glafs will move towards its centre,

b The reader will recollect the cufiom which then prevailed, of regulating the time of preaching by the hour-glafs, which was ufually placed at the right-hand of the preacher. In allufion to this cuftom, a preacher at Cambridge calls himself "A watchman for an hour in the "towre of the Univerfity." (Fuller's Univ. of Cambridge, p. 159.)Dr. Donne thus begins his difcourfe on 1 Tim. iii. 16. This is no text for an hour-glafs: If God would afford me Hezekiah's fign, ut "revertatur umbra, that the fhadow might go backward upon the dial, or Joshua's fign, ut sistat Sol, that the fun might fland ftill all the day, "this were text enough to employ all the day, and all the days of our "life." Again, on Ps. xxxii. 6.—" You would not be weary of reading a long conveyance, in which the land were given to yourselves; nor of a long will, in which the body of the State were bequeathed to you. Be not weary, if at any time your patience be exercised fome "minutes beyond the threescore, fome time beyond the hour, in thefe ex"ercifes; for we exhibit conveyance, in which the land, the land of promife is made yours, and the teflament, in which the teflator him. "felf is bequeathed to you."- "In the account of churchwardens "of St. Helen's, in Abington, Berks, IVd, was paid for an hour-glass for "the pulpit, 1591. Archeolog. vol. I. p. 22. There is fcarcely perhaps an earlier mention of this implement. It was ufed at Paul's Crois in "1616; for in a painting of that and the church of that date, now in "the library of the Society of Antiquarians of London, I obferved an hour-glafs near the preacher; and the cuftom continued till after the "Reftoration; for a very fine one which coft XVIII fhillings, was brought "from Holland to Lynn in Norfolk. Bloomfield's History, vol. IV. p. 131. "The iron frames in which they flood are fornetimes ftill feen near pulpits."--(Sir John Cullum's Hist. and Antiq. of Hansted, p. 34.)--Itappears from the accounts of modern travellers, that in fome of the Proteftant churches in Switzerland the hour-glafs is fill retained to direct the length of the preacher's difcourfe. See Gray's Letters during the Course of a Tour through Germany, p. 131.

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"and meafure out an hour of this dying man's unfpent life? "Doubtless it cannot:" And yet, after fome faint pauses in his zealous prayer, his ftrong defires enabled his weak body to difcharge his memory of his preconceived meditations, which were of dying; the text being, "To God the Lord belong the "ifsues from death." Many that then faw his tears, and heard his faint and hollow voice, profefsing they thought the text prophetically chofen, and that Dr. Donne had preached his own funeral sermon c.

Being full of joy that God had enabled him to perform this defired duty, he haftened 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 fermon, his ftrength being much wafted, and his fpirits fo fpent as indifpofed him to business or to talk, a friend that had often been a witnefs of his free and facetious difcourfe, asked, "Why are you fad?" To whom he replied, with a countenance fo full of cheerful gravity, as gave teftimony of an inward tranquillity of mind, and of a foul willing to take a farewell of this world; and faid

"I am not fad, but moft of the night paft I have entertained "myself with many thoughts of several friends that have left "me here, and are gone to that place from which they shall not re66 turn; and that within a few days I shall go bence 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 reftlefs to me: But at this present time I "was in a serious contemplation of the providence and good"nefs of God to me; to me, who am less than the least of his "mercies; and looking back upon my life paft, I now plainly "fee it was his hand that prevented me from all temporal em"ployment, and that it was his will I fhould never fettle or "thrive till I entered into the ministry; in which I have now "lived almost twenty years (I hope to his glory), and by which "I most humbly thank him, I have been enabled to requite "most of thofe friends who fhowed me kindnefs when my for"tune was very low, as God knows it was, and (as it hath oc"cafioned the exprefsion of my gratitude) I thank God most of "them have flood in need of my requital. I have lived to be "ufeful and comfortable to my good father-in-law, Sir George "Moore, whofe patience God hath been pleased to exercise "with many temporal crofses; I have maintained my own "mother, whom it hath pleafed God, after a plentiful fortune

This difcourfe was printed at London in 1633, in 4to, under the quaint title of "Death's Duel, or a Confolation to the Soule against the Dying Life and Living Death of the Body." The text is from Ps. lxviii. 20. It is the laft difcourfe in the third volume of Dr. Donne's Sermons.