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
he surprized by a sudden apprehension of death but it was made with mature deliberation expressing himself an impartiall Father by making his childrens portions equall 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 deare friend and executor Dr. King now Bishop of Chichester that model of Gold of the Synod of Dort with which the States presented him at his last being at the Hague and the two Pictures of Padrie 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 Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge he gave the picture of the blessed Virgin and Ioseph 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 usefull for his house and also severall Pictures and Ornaments for the Chappel with a desire that they might be registred and remain as a Legacy to his Successors To the Earles of Dorset and of Carlile he gave several Pictures and so he did to many other friends Legacies given rather to express his affection then 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 almes-people for all these he made provision and so largely as having then six children living might to some appear more then 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 Iohn Donne by the mercy of Christ Iesus 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 cheerfull resolution which the same Spirit hath establisht in me to live 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 S. Pauls 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 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 superiours 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 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 for small debts he was a continuall giver to poor Scholars both of this and forraign 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 Festivall 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 by a too liberall heart then decayed in his estate and when the receiving of it was denied by saying he wanted not for as there be some spirits so generous as to labour to conceal and endure a sad poverty rather then 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 defire is that you who in the dayes of your plenty have cheered the hearts of so many of your friends would receive this from me and use it as a cordiall 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 dutifull son to his Mother carefull 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 forraign 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 Deanery as he numbred his yeares and at the foot of a private account to which God and his Angells were onely 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 blest each yeares poor remainder with a thankfull prayer which for that they discover a more then common Devotion the Reader shall partake some of them in his own words So all is that remaines of these two yeares Deo Opt. Max. benigno Lirgitori à me ab iis Quibus haec à me reseâ—vantur Gloria gratia in aeternum Amen So that this year God hath blessed me land mine with Multiplicatae sunt super Nos misericordi ae tuae Domine Da Domine ut quae eximmensû Bonitate tuâ nobis elargiri Dignatus sis in quorumcunque Manus dovenerint in tuam Semper cedant gloriam Amen In sine horum sex Annorum manet Quid habeo quid non accepi à Domino Lirgiatur etiam ut quae largitus est Sua iterum fiant bono corum usu ut