Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A67468
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The life of John Donne, Dr. in divinity, and late dean of Saint Pauls Church London
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Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.
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1658
(1658)
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Wing W668; ESTC R17794
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42,451
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172
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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 defuissi Ita liberi quibus quae supersunt Supersunt grato animo eâ— accipiant Et beneficum authorem recognoscant 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 thence And having never for almost twenty yeares omitted his personall Attendance on his Majesty in that moneth 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 Ianuary 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 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 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 happinesse and I doubt not but among his other blessings God will adde 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 knowes an ill-grounded interpretation for I have alwaies been sorrier when I could not preach then 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 speechlesse I would not willingly decline that service I have better leisure to write then you to read yet I would not willingly oppresse you with too much Letter God blesse you and your Son as I wish Your poor friend and servant in Christ Iesus J. Donne Before that moneth ended he was designed to preach upon his old constant day the first Friday in Lent he had notice of it and had in his sicknesse so prepared for that imployment that as he had long thirsted for it so he resolved his weaknesse should not hinder his journey he came therefore to London some few dayes before his day appointed At his being there many of his friends who with sorrow saw his sicknesse had left him onely so much flesh as did cover his bones doubted his strength to performe that task and therefore disswaded him from undertaking it assuring him however it was like to shorten his daies but he passionately denyed their requests saying he would not doubt that God who in many weaknesses had assisted him with an unexpected strength would not now withdraw it in his last employment professing an holy ambition to performe that sacred work And when to the amazement of some beholders he appeared in the Pulpit many thought he presented himself not to preach mortification by a living voice but mortality by a decayed body and dying face And doubtlesse 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 glasse will move towards its Centre and measure out an hour of this dying mans unspent life Doubtlesse it cannot yet after some faint pauses in his zealous prayer his strong desires enabled his weake 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 teares and heard his hollow voice professing they thought the Text prophetically chosen and that Dr. Donne had preach't his own funerall Sermon Being full of joy that God had enabled him to performe this desired duty he hastened to his house out of which he never moved till like St. Stephen he was carryed 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 businesse or to talk A friend that had often been a witnesse of his free and facetious discourse asked him Why are you sad To whom he replyed with a countenance so full of cheerfull 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 severall friends that have left me here and are gone to that place from which they shall not returne 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 restlesse to me But at this present time I was in a serious Contemplation of the goodnesse of God to me who am lesse then 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 temporall imployment 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 yeares I hope to his glory and by which I most humbly thank him I have been inabled to requite most of those friends which shewed me kindnesse when my fortune was very low and as it hath occasioned the expression of my gratitude I thank God most of them have stood in need of my requitall I have liv'd to be usefull and comfortable to my good father in Law Sir George Moore whose patience God hath been pleased to exercise with many temporall crosses I have maintained my own mother whom it hath pleased God after a plentifull 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 mercifull God who is not willing to see what I have done amisse And though of my self I
resolution but the heart of man is not in his own keeping and he was destined to this sacred service by an higher hand a hand so powerfull as forced him to a compliance of which I shall give the reader an account before I shall give a rest to my pen Mr. Donne and his wife continued with Sir Francis Wolly till his death a little before which time he was so happy as to make a perfect reconciliation betwixt Sir George and his forsaken son and daughter Sir George conditioning by bond to pay to Mr. Donne 800 l. at a certain day as a portion with his wife or 20 l. quarterly for their maintenance as the interest for it till the said portion was paid Most of those years that he lived with Sir Francis he studied the Civil and Common Lawes in which he acquired such a perfection as 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 aire and choice company there his wife and children remained for himself he took lodgings in London near to White-Hall whither his friends and occasions drew him very often and where he was often visited by many of the Nobility and others of this Nation who used him in their Counsels of greatest consideration Nor did our owne 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 businesse occasioned their stay in this Nation He was much importuned by many friends to make his residence in London but he still denied it having setled his deare wife and children at Micham whither he often retired himself and destin'd certaine dayes to a constant study of some points of Controversies but after some yeares the perswasion of friends was so powerful as to cause the removall of himself and family to London where Sir Robert Drewry a Gentleman of a very noble estate and a more liberall mind assigned him a very choice and usefull 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 sorrowes Many of the Nobility were watchfull and solicitous to the King for some 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 the better 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 Winchester who then was the Kings Almoner About this time there grew many disputes that concerned the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance in which the King had appeared and engaged himself by his publick writings now extant and his Majesty discoursing with Mr. Donne concerning many of the reasons which are usually urged against the taking of those Oaths apprehended such a validity and clearnesse in his stating the Questions and his Answers to them that his Majesty commanded him to bestow some time in drawing the Arguments into a method and then write his Answers to them and having done that not to send but be his own messenger and bring them to him To this he presently applied himself and within six weeks brought them to him under his own hand-writing as they be now printed the Book bearing the name of Pseudo-Martyr When the King had read and considered that booke he perswaded Mr. Donne to enter into the Ministry to which at that time he was and appeared very unwilling apprehending it such was his mistaking modesty to be too weighty for his abilities and though his Majesty had promised him a favour and many persons of worth mediated with his Majesty for some secular employment for him to which his education had apted him and particulary the Earle of somerset when in his height of favour being then at Theobalds with the King where one of the Clerks of the Council died that night the Earle having sent immediately for Mr. Donne to come to him said Mr. Donne To testifie the reality of my affection and my purpose to prefer you stay in this garden till I go up to the King and bring you word that you are Clerk of the Council The King gave a positive denial to all requests and having a discerning spirit replied I know Mr. Donne is a learned man has the abilities of a learned Divine and will prove a powerfull Preacher and my desire is to prefer him that way After that as he professeth * the King descended almost to a solicitation of him to enter into sacred Orders which though he then denied not yet he deferred it for three years All which time he applied himself to an incessant study of Textuall Divinity and to the attainment of a greater perfection in the learned Languages Greek and Hebrew In the first and most blessed times of Christianity when the Clergy were look'd upon with reverence and deserved it when they overcame their opposers by high examples of Vertue by a blessed Patience and long Suffering those onely were then judged worthy the Ministry whose quiet and meek spirits did make them look upon that sacred calling with an humble adoration and fear to undertake it which indeed requires such great degrees of humility and labour and care that none but such were then thought worthy of that Celestiall dignity And such onely were then sought out and solicited to undertake it This I have mentioned because forwardness and inconsideration could not in Mr. Donne as in many others be an argument of insufficiency or unfitnesse for he had considered long and had many strifes within himself concerning the strictnesse of life and competency of learning required in such as enter into sacred Orders and doubtlesse considering his own demerits did humbly aske God with St. Paul Lord who is sufficient for these things and with meek Moses Lord who am I And sure if he had consulted with flesh and blood he had not put his hand to that holy plough But God who is able to prevaile wrestled with him as the Angell did with Iacob and marked him mark't him for his own mark't him with a blessing a blessing of obedience to the motions of his blessed Spirit And then as he had formerly asked God with Moses Who am I So now being inspired with an apprehension of Gods particular mercy to him he came to ask King Davids thankfull question Lord