found so soiled by usage, and so stained with tears, that they were scarcely readable.

REFLECTION.-There are few things relating to death which so evidently manifest the Divine care for our souls, as the many solemn warnings which God gives us by the successive removal of relations, friends, and neighbours. For every death of which we hear, preaches a most forcible sermon, from the text, "Be ye also ready."

DR. DONNE was Dean of St. Paul's. Not long before his death he caused to be drawn a figure of the body of Christ extended upon an anchor, in a similar manner to the representations of Christ on the cross the only variation was in affixing Him to the cross of an anchor, the emblem of hope. He had caused this design to be executed in miniature, and also engraven upon very small Helitropian stones, which were set in gold; and of these he sent many to his dearest friends, to be

used as seals or rings, and kept as memorials of him and of his affection to them. Dr. Donne afterwards used this symbol for his crest, instead of a sheaf of snakes, which was that of his family.

Before the end of the month of January, 1630, he was appointed to preach upon his old constant day, the first Friday in Lent: he had notice of it, and had in his sickness so prepared for that employment, that as he had long thirsted for it, so he resolved his weakness should not hinder his journey he came, therefore, to London, some few days before his appointed day of preaching. At his coming thither, many of his friends (who with sorrow saw that his sickness had left him but so much flesh as did only cover his bones) doubted his strength to perform that task, and did therefore dissuade him from undertaking it, assuring him, however, it was like to shorten his life; but he denied their requests, saying, "he would not doubt that God, who in so many weaknesses had assisted him with unexpected strength, would now withdraw it in his last employment, professing an holy ambition to perform that sacred work." And when to the amazement of some beholders he appeared in the pulpit, many of them thought he presented himself, not to preach mortification by a living voice, but mortality by a decayed body and a dying face; and doubtless many did ask the question in Ezekiel, Do these bones live, or can that soul organize that tongue, to speak so long time as the sand in that glass will move towards its centre, and measure out an hour of this dying man's unspent life? Doubtless it cannot; and yet after some faint pauses in his zealous prayer, his strong desires enabled his weak 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 tears, and heard his faint hollow voice, professing that they thought the text prophetically chosen, and that Dr. Donne had preached his own funeral sermon.

Being full of joy that God had enabled him to perform this desired duty, he hastened to his house, out of which he never moved, till, like Stephen, he was carried 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 business or to talk, a friend that had often been a witness of his free facetious discourse, asked him, "Why are you sad?" to whom he replied, with a countenance so full of cheerful 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 myself with many thoughts of several friends who have left me here, and are gone to that place from which they shall not return, and that within a few days I shall also 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 restless to me. But at this present time I was in a serious contemplation of the providence and goodness of God to me; to me who am less than the least of his mercies; and looking back upon my life past, I now plainly see that it was his hand that prevented me from all temporal employment, and that it was his will that I should never settle nor thrive till I entered into the ministry, in which I have 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 those

friends which showed me kindness when my fortune was very low, as God knows it was; and as it has occasioned the expression of my gratitude. I have lived to be useful and comfortable to my good father-in-law Sir George Moore, whose patience God hath been pleased to exercise with many temporal crosses. I have maintained my own mother, whom it hath pleased God, after a plentiful fortune in her younger days, 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 merciful God, who is not willing to see what I have done amiss: and though of myself I have nothing to present to Him but sin and misery, yet I know He looks not upon me now as I am of myself, but as I am in my Saviour, and hath given me even at this present time some testimonies by his Holy Spirit, that I am of the number of his elect. I am therefore full of inexpressible joy, and shall die in peace.

وو

Dr. Donne at this time had a monument made for him. This monument being resolved upon, Dr. Donne sent for a carver to make for him in wood the figure of an urn, giving him directions for the compass and height of it, and to bring with it a board of the just height of his body. These being got, then, without delay, a choice painter was got to be in readiness to draw his picture, which was taken as followeth. Several charcoal fires being first made in his large study, he brought with him into that place his winding sheet in his hand, and having put off all his clothes, had this sheet put on him and so tied with knots at his head and feet, and his hands so placed as

dead bodies are usually fitted to be shrouded and put into their coffin or grave. Upon this urn he thus stood with his eyes shut, and with so much of the sheet turned aside as might show his lean, pale, and death-like face, which was purposely turned towards the east, from whence he expected the coming of his and our Saviour Jesus Christ. In this posture he was drawn at his just height; and when the picture was fully finished, he caused it to be set by his bedside, where it continued till his death.

Chalmers tells us that this picture was then given to Dr. Henry King, the chief residentiary of St. Paul's, who caused him to be thus carved in white marble of one entire piece as it stood in that church. This figure may yet be seen in the vaults of St. Faith under St. Paul's. It stands erect in a window, without its niche, and deprived of the urn in which its feet were placed.

Upon the Monday after the drawing of this picture, he took his leave of his beloved study; and being sensible of his hourly decay, retired himself to his bedchamber, and that week sent at several times for many of his most considerable friends, with whom he took a solemn and deliberate farewell, commending to their considerations some sentences useful for the regulation of their lives, and then dismissed them, as good Jacob did his sons, with a spiritual benediction. The Sunday following he appointed his servants, that if there were any business yet undone that concerned him or themselves, it should be prepared against Saturday next; for after that day he would not mix his thoughts with anything that concerned this world; nor ever did: but as Job, so he waited for the appointed day of his dissolution. And now he was so happy as to have nothing to do but