have given some men boldness enough to have preached to any eminent auditory, yet his modesty in this employment was such, that he could not be persuaded 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 Whitehall; and though much were expected from him, both by his Majesty and others, yet he was so happy (which few are) as to satisfy and exceed their expectations; preaching the word so as shewed his own heart was possest with those very thoughts and joys that he laboured to distil into others: a preacher in earnest; weeping sometimes for his auditory, sometimes with them: always preaching to himself, like an angel from a cloud, but in none; carrying some, as St. Paul was, to heaven in holy raptures, and enticing others by a sacred art and courtship to amend their lives: here picturing a vice so as to make it ugly to those that practised it; and a virtue so as to make it be beloved even by those that loved it not; and all this with a most particular grace and an inexpressible 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) in part of a funeral elegy writ by him on Dr. Donne, and is a known truth, though it be in verse.

-Each altar had his fire

He kept his love, but not his object: wit
He did not banish, but transplanted it;

Taught it both time and 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 shap'd, or loveliness
Such as his lips did clothe religion in?
Had not reproof a beauty passing sin?
Corrupted nature sorrowed that she stood
So near the danger of becoming good.
And when he preach'd she wish'd her ears exempt
From piety, that had such power 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 month in which he entered into sacred orders, and was made the king's chaplain, his Majesty then going his progress, was entreated 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-chancellor, 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 expressed a gladness that they had such an occasion to entitle 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 entering into sacred orders he had fourteen advow

sons

sons of several benefices presented to him; but they were in the country, 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 multiplied the joys of his life; but an employment that might affix 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 a narrow unsettled 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 step-mother; which promise he kept most faithfully, burying with his tears all his earthly joys in his most dear and deserving wife's grave, and betook himself to a most retired and solitary life.

Nor

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 daily acted on that restless stage; and they were as perfectly crucified to him. is it hard to think (being passions may be both changed and heightened by accidents) but that that abundant affection which once was betwixt him and her, who had long been the delight of his eyes and 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; not hard to think but that 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

was a joy to be alone, where like a pelican in the wilderness, he might beinoan 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 remembered Sion, so he gave some ease to his oppressed heart by thus venting his sorrows. 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 engagements to God, and St. Paul's Wo is me if I preach not the Gospel, dispersed those sad clouds that had then benighted his hopes, and now forced him to behold the light.

Thus

His first motion from his house was to preach where his beloved wife lay buried (in St. Clement's church, near Temple-bar, London,) and his text was a part of the prophet Jeremiah'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, expressed 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 nothing but 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

In this time of sadness he was importuned by the grave benchers of Lincoln's Inn, who were once the companions and friends of his youth, to accept of their lecture, which, by reason of Dr. Gataker's removal from thence, was then void; of which he accepted, being most glad to renew his intermitted friendship with those whom he so much loved; and where he had been a Saul, though not to persecute Christianity, or to deride it, yet in his irregular youth to neglect the visible practice of it, there to become a Paul, and preach salvation to his beloved brethren.

And now his life was as a shining light among his old friends: now he gave an ocular testimony of the strictness and regularity of it: now he might say as St. Paul adviseth his Corinthians, Be ye followers of me, as I follow Christ, and walk as ye have me for an example; not the example of a busybody, but of a contemplative, a harmless, an humble, and an holy life and conversation.

The love of that noble society was expressed to him many ways; for, besides fair lodgings that were set apart and newly furnished for him with all necessaries, other courtesies were also daily added; indeed, so many and so freely, as if they meant their gratitude should exceed his merits; and in this love-strife of desert and liberality they continued for the space of two years, he preaching faithfully and constantly to them, and they liberally requiting him. About which time the emperor of Germany died, and the Palsgrave, who had lately married the lady Elizabeth, the king's only daughter, was elected and crowned king of Bohemia, the unhappy beginning of many miseries in that nation.

King James, whose motto (Beati pacifici) did truly

speak