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A67470 The lives of Dr. John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Mr. Richard Hooker, Mr. George Herbert written by Izaak Walton ; to which are added some 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. Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683. 1670 (1670) Wing W671; ESTC R15317 178,870 410

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that Faction given with all the Library to Hugh Pe●ers as a Reward for his remarkable service in those sad times of the Churches Confusion and though they could hardly fall into a fouler hand yet there wanted not other Endeavours to corrupt and make them speak that Language for which the Faction then fought which indeed was To subject the Soveraign Power to the People But I need not strive to vindicate Mr. Hooker in this particular his known Loyalty to his Prince whilest he lived the Sorrow expressed by King James at his Death the Value our late Soveraign of ever-blessed Memory put upon his Works and now the singular Character of his Worth by you given in the passages of his Life especially in your Appendix to it do sufficiently clear him from that Imputation and I am glad you mention how much value Thomas Stapleton Pope Clement the VIII and other Eminent men of the Romish Perswasion have put upon his Books having been told the same in my Youth by Persons of worth that have travelled Italy Lastly I must again congratulate this Undertaking of yours as now more proper to you then any other person by reason of your long Knowledge and Alliance to the worthy Family of the Cranmers my old Friends also who have been men of noted Wisdom especially Mr. George Cranmer whose Prudence added to that of Sir Edwin Sandys proved very useful in the Completing of Mr. Hookers matchless Books one of their Letters I herewith send you to make use of if you think fit And let me say further you merit much from many of Mr. Hookers best Friends then living namely from the ever renowned Archbishop Whitgift of whose incomparable Worth with the Charact●● of ●he Times you have given us a more short and significant Account then I have received from any other Pen. You have done much for Sir Henry Savile his Contemporary and familiar Friend amongst the surviving Monuments of whose Learning give me leave to tell you so two are omitted his Edition of Euclid but especially his Translation of King James his Apology for the Oath of Allegeance into elegant Latine which flying in that dress as far as Rome was by the Pope and Conclave sent to Salamanca unto Francisous Suarez then residing there as President of that Colledge with a Command to answer it When he had perfected the Work which he calls Defensio Fidei Catholicae it was transmitted to Rome for a view of the Inquisitors who according to their custom blotted out what they pleased and as Mr. Hooker hath been used since his Death added whatsoever might advance the Popes Supremacy or carry on their own Interest commonly coupling Deponere Occidere the Deposing and Killing of Princes which cruel and unchristian Language Mr. John Saltkel his Amanuensis when he wrote at Salamanca but since a Convert living long in my Fathers house often professed the good Old man whose Piety and Charity Mr. Saltkel magnified much not onely disavowed but detested Not to trouble you further your Reader if according to your desire my Approbation of your Work carries any weight will here find many just Reasons to thank you for it and for this Circumstance here mentioned not known to many may happily apprehend one to thank him who heartily wishes your happiness and is unfainedly Chichester Novem. 17. 1664. Sir Your ever-faithful and affectionate old Friend Henry Chichester THE LIFE OF D r. JOHN DONNE late Dean of S t Paul's Church LONDON The Introduction IF that great Master of Language and Art Sir Henry Wotton the late Provost of Eaton Colledge had liv'd to see the Publication of these Sermons he had presented the World with the Authors Life exactly written And 't was pity he did not for it was a work worthy his undertaking and he fit to undertake it betwixt whom and the Author there was so mutual a knowledge and such a friendship contracted in their Youth as nothing but death could force a separation And though their bodies were divided their affections were not for that learned Knight's love followed his Friends fame beyond death and the forgetful grave which he testified by intreating me whom he acquainted with his designe to inquire of some particulars that concern'd it not doubting but my knowledge of the Author and love to his memory might make my diligence useful I did most gladly undertake the employment and continued it with great content 'till I had made my Collection ready to be augmented and compleated by his curious Pen but then Death prevented his intentions When I heard that sad news and heard also that these Sermons were to be printed and want the Authors Life which I thought to be very remarkable Indignation or grief indeed I know not which transperted me so far that I reviewed my forsaken Collections and resolv'd the World should see the best plain Picture of the Authors Life that my artless Pensil guided by the hand of truth could present to it And if I shall now be demanded as once Pompey's poor bondman was The grateful wretch had been left alone on the Sea-shore with the forsaken dead body of his once glorious lord and master and was then gathering the scatter'd pieces of an old broken boat to make a funeral pile to burn it which was the custom of the Romans who art thou that alone hast the honour to bury the body of Pompey the great so who I am that do thus officiously set the Authors memorie on fire I hope the question will prove to have in it more of wonder then disdain But wonder indeed the Reader may that I who profess my self artless should presume with my faint light to shew forth his Life whose very name makes it illustrious but be this to the disadvantage of the person represented Certain I am it is to the advantage of the beholder who shall here see the Authors Picture in a natural dress which ought to beget faith in what is spoken for he that wants skill to deceive may safely be trusted And if the Authors glorious spirit which now is in Heaven can have the leasure to look down and see me the poorest the meanest of all his friends in the midst of this officious dutie confident I am that he will not disdain this well-meant sacrifice to his memory for whilst his Conversation made me and many others happy below I know his Humility and Gentleness was then eminent and I have heard Divines say those Vertues that were but sparks upon Earth become great and glorious flames in Heaven Before I proceed further I am to intreat the Reader to take notice that when Doctor Donn's Sermons were first printed this was then my excuse for daring to write his life and I dare not now appear without it The Life MAster John Donne was born in London of good and vertuous Parents and though his own Learning and other multiplyed merits may justly appear sufficient to dignifie both Himself and his Posteritie yet the
imployment was such that he could not be perswaded to it but went usually accompanied with some one friend to preach privately in some village not far from London his first Sermon being preached at Paddington This he did till His Majesty sent and appointed him a day to preach to him at White-hall and though much were expected from him both by His Majesty and others yet he was so happy which few are as to satisfie and exceed their expectations preaching the Word so as shewed his own heart was po●ssest with those very thoughts and joyes that h● labored to distill into others A Preacher ●● earnest weeping sometimes for his Auditory sometimes with them alwayes preaching ●● himself like an Angel from a cloud but ●● none carrying some as St. Paul was ●● Heaven in holy raptures and inticing other● by a sacred Art and Courtship to amen● their lives here picturing a vice so as to make it ugly to those that practised it and a vertue so as to make it be beloved even by tho● that lov'd it not and all this with a most particular grace and an unexpressible addition of comeliness There may be some that may incline to think such indeed as have not heard him that my affection to my Friend hath transported me to an immoderate Commendation of his Preaching If this meets with any such Let me intreat though I will omit many yet that they will receive a double witness for what I say it being attested by a Gentleman of worth Mr. Chidley a frequent hearer of his Sermons being part of a funeral Elogie writ by him on Doctor Donne and a known truth though it be in Verse Each Altar had his fire He kept his love but not his object wi● He did not banish but transplanted it Taught it both time place and brought it home To Piety which it doth best become For say had ever pleasure such a dress Have you seen crimes so sh●p't or loveliness Such as his lips did clothe Religion in Had not reproof a beauty passing sin Corrupted nature sorrowed that she stood So neer the danger of becoming good And when he preach●t she wish't her ears exempt From Piety that had such pow'r to tempt How did his sacred flattery beguile Men to amend More of this and more witnesses might be brought but I forbear and return That Summer in the very same moneth in which he entred into sacred Orders and was made the Kings Chaplain His Majesty then going his Progress was intreated to receive an entertainment in the University of Cambridge And Mr. Donne attending his Majesty at that time his Majesty was pleased to recommend him to the University to be made Doctor in Divinity Doctor Harsnet after Archbishop of York was then Vice-Chancellour who knowing him to be the Author of that learned Book the Pseudo-Martyr required no other proof of his Abilities but proposed it to the University who presently assented and exprest a gladness that they had such an occasion to intitle him to be theirs His Abilities and Industry in his Profession were so eminent and he so known and so beloved by Persons of Quality that within the first year of his entring into sacred Orders he had fourteen Advowsons of several Benefices presented to him But they were in the Countrey and he could not leave his beloved London to which place he had a natural inclination having received both his Birth and Education in it and there contracted a friendship with many whose conversation multiplyed the joyes of his life But an imployment that might affixe him to that place would be welcome for he needed it Immediately after his return from Cambridge his wife died leaving him a man of an unsetled estate and having buried five the careful father of seven children then living to whom he gave a voluntary assurance never to bring them under the subjection of a stepmother which promise he kept most faithfully burying with his tears all his earthly joyes in his most dear and deserving wives grave betaking himself to a most retired and solitary life In this retiredness which was often from the sight of his dearest friends he became crucified to the world and all those vanities those imaginary pleasures that are dayly acted on that restless stage and they crucified to him Nor is it hard to think being passions may be both changed and heightned by accidents but that that abundant affection which once was betwixt him and her who had long been the delight of his eyes the Companion of his youth her with whom he had divided so many pleasant sorrows and contented fears as Common-people are not capable of She being now removed by death a commeasurable grief took as full a possession of him as joy had done and so indeed it did for now his very soul was elemented of nothing but sadness now grief took so full a possession of his heart as to leave no place for joy If it did It was a joy to be alone where like a Pelican in the wilderness he might bemoan himself without witness or restraint and pour forth his passions like Job in the days of his affliction Oh that I might have the desire of my heart Oh that God would grant the thing that I long for For then as the grave is become her house so I would hasten to make it mine also that we two might there make our beds together in the dark Thus as the Israelites sate mourning by the rivers of Babylon when they remem●red Sion so he gave some ease to his oppressed heart by thus venting his sorrows Thus he began the day and ended the night ended the restless night and began the weary day in Lamentations And thus he continued till a consideration of his new ingagements to God and St. Pauls W● is me if I preach not the Gospel disper'st those sad clouds that had now benighted his hopes and forc'd him to behold the light His first motion from his house was to preach where his beloved wife lay buried in St Clements Church near Temple-Bar London and his Text was a part of the Prophet Jeremy's Lamentation Lo I am the man that have seen affliction And indeed his very words and looks testified him to be truly such a man and they with the addition of his sighs and tears exprest in his Sermon did so work upon the affections of his hearers as melted and moulded them into a companionable sadness and so they left the Congregation but then their houses presented them with objects of diversion and his presented him with no diversions but with fresh objects of sorrow in beholding many helpless children a narrow fortune and a consideration of the many cares and casualties that attend their education In this time of sadness he was importuned by the grave Benchers of Lincolns Inne once the friends of his youth to accept of their Lecture which by reason of Dr. Gatakers removal from thence was then void of which he accepted being
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 Di●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 we●●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
Merit and did therefore desire him to accept of that Jewel as a Testimony of his good opinion of him which was a Jewel of Diamonds of more value then a thousand pounds This was received with all Circumstances and terms of Honour by Sir Henry Wotton but the next morning at his departing from Vienna at his taking leave of the Countess of Sabrina an Italian Lady in whose House the Emperour had appointed him to be lodg'd and honourably entertained He acknowledged her Merits and besought her to accept of that Jewel as a testimony of his gratitude for her Civilities presenting her with the same that was given him by the Emperour which being suddenly discovered by the Emperour was by him taken for a high affront and Sir Henry Wotton told so To which he replyed That though he received it with thankfulness yet he found in himself an indisposition to be the better for any gift that came from an Enemy to his Royal Mistress the Queen of Bohemia for so she was pleased he should alwayes call her Many other of his services to his Prince and this Nation might be insisted upon as namely his procuration of Priviledges and courtesies with the German Princes and the Republick of Venice for the English Merchants and what he did by direction of King James with the Venetian State concerning the Bishop of Spalato's return to the Church of Rome But for the particulars of these and many more that I mean to make known I want a view of some papers that might inform me his late Majesties Letter-Office having suffered a strange alienation and indeed I want time too for the Printers Press-stayes so that I must haste to bring Sir Henry Wotton in an instant from Venice to London leaving the Reader to make up what is defective in this place by this small supplement of the inscription under his Armes which he left at all those houses where he rested or lodged when he returned from his last Embassie into England Henricus Wottonius Anglo-Cantianus Thomae optimi viri filius natu minimus a serenissimo Jacobo I. Mag. Britt Rege in equestrem titulum adscitus ejusdemque ter ad Rempublicam Venetam Legatus Ordinarius semel ad confaederatarum Provinciarum Ordines in Juliacensi negotio Bis ad Carolum Emanuel Sabaudiae Ducem semel ad unitos superioris G●rmaniae Principes in Conventu Heilbrunensi postremo ad Archiducem Leopoldum Ducem Wittembergensem Civitates imperiales Argentinam Ulmamque ipsum Romanorum Imperatorem Ferdinandum secundum Legatus Extraordinarius tandem hoc didicit Animas fieri sapientiores quiescendo To London he came that year in which King James dyed who having for the reward of his forreign service promised him the reversion of an Office which was fit to be turned into present money for a supply of his present necessities and also granted him the reversion of the Master of the Rolls place if he out-lived charitable Sir Julius Caesar who then possessed it and then grown so old that he was said to be kept alive beyond Natures Course by the prayers of those many poor which he daily relieved But these were but in hope and his condition required a present support For in the beginning of these imployments he sold to his elder brother the Lord Wotton the Rent-charge left by his good Father and which is worse was now at his return indebted to several persons whom he was not able to satisfie but by the Kings payment of his Arrears due for his forreign Imployments He had brought into England many servants of which some were German and Italian Artists this was part of his condition who had many times hardly sufficient to supply the occasions of the day For it may by no means be said of his providence as himself said of Sir Philip Sidney's wit That it was the very measure of congruity He being alwayes so careless of money as though our Saviours wores Care not for to morrow were to be literally understood But it pleased God that in this juncture of time the Provostship of His Majesties Colledge of Eaton became void by the death of● Murray for which there were as the place deserv'd many earnest and powerful Suiters to the King Sir Henry who had for many years like Siciphus rolled the restless stone of a State imployment and knowing experimentally that the great blessing of sweet content was not to be found in multitudes of men or business and that a Colledge was the fittest place to nourish holy thoughts and to afford rest both to his body and mind which his age being now almost threescore years seemed to require did therefore use his own and the interest of all his friends to procure it By which means and quitting the King of his promised reversionary Offices and a piece of honest policy which I have not time to relate he got a Grant of it from His Majesty And this was a fair settlement for his mind but money was wanting to furnish him with those necessaries which attend removes and a settlement in such a place and to procure that he wrote to his old friend Mr. Nicholas Pey for his assistance of which Nicholas Pey I shall here say a little for the clearing of something that I shall say hereafter He was in his youth a Clerk or in some such way a servant to the Lord Wotton Sir Henry's brother and by him when he was Comptroller of the Kings Houshold was made a great Officer in His Majesties house This and other favours being conferred upon Mr. Pey in whom was a radical honesty were alwayes thankfully acknowledged by him and his gratitude exprest by a willing and unwearied serviceableness to that Family even till his death To him Sir Henry Wotton wrote to use all his in●●●● at Court to procure Five hundred pounds of his Arrears for less would not settle him ●●● Colledge and the want of it wrinkled ●●●●● with care 't was his own expression and th●r being procured he should the next day after find him in his Colledge and Invidiae remedium writ over his Study door This money being part of his Arrears was by his own and the help of honest Nicholas Pey's interest in Court quickly procured him and he as quickly in the Colledge the place where indeed his happiness then seemed to have its beginning the Colledge being to his mind as a quiet Harbor to a Sea-faring-man after a tempestuous voyage where by the bounty of the pious Founder his very Food and Rayment were plentifully provided for him in kind where he was freed from all corroding cares and seated on such a Rock as the waves of want could not probably shake where he might sit in a Calm and looking down behold the busie multitude turmoyl'd and tossed in a tempestuous Sea of dangers And as Sir William Davenant has happily exprest the like of another person Laugh at the graver business of the State Which speaks men rather wise than