ferve at the altar; fo merciful to me, as at laft to move my heart to embrace this holy motion:-Thy motions I will and do embrace :-And now I fay with the bleffed Virgin, "Be it with thy fervant as feemeth best in thy fight;" and fo, bleffed Jefus, I do take the cup of falvation, and will call upon thy name, and will preach thy gofpel". Such ftrifes as these St. Austine had, when St. Ambrofe" endeavoured his converfion to Christianity, with which he confeffeth he acquainted his friend Alipius. Our learned author (a man fit to write after no mean copy) did the like. And declaring his intentions to his dear friend Dr. King, then Bishop of London, a man famous in his generation, and no stranger to Mr. Donne's abilities,-(for he had been chaplain to the Lord Chancellor, at the time of Mr. Donne's being his lordship's secretary);—that reverend man did receive the news with much gladnefs; and, after fome expreffions of joy, and a persuasion to be constant in his pious purpose, he proceeded with all convenient speed, to ordain him first deacon, and then priest not long after. Now These just and exquifitely beautiful reflections affix infinite credit equally to Dr. Donne and to his Biographer. Is it not devoutly to be wished that they were deeply imprinted on the minds of every candidate for holy orders? с Augustin, the famous Bishop of Hippo, and ufually called "the great Doctor of Africa," was born in 359, and died in 430. The careleffnefs and levity of the earlier period of his life were in fome measure compenfated by the unbounded charity, the piety and zeal which he difplayed after his converfion to the true faith. This converfion is attributed partly to the affecting difcourfes of St. Ambrofe, whofe lectures he was induced to attend through mere curiofity, and partly to the tears and tender entreaties of his mother Monica. He hath fo freely acknowledged and cenfured the impropriety of his former conduct, in his books of Confeffions, that it is juftly deemed "tyranny to trample on him that proftrates himself." Erafmus, who hath written his life, exhibits him as the most finished pattern of goodness"quafi Deus voluerit in Auguftino tanquam in una tabula vividum quoddam exemplar "Epifcopi reprefentare omnibus virtutum numeris abfolutum." d Bishop of Milan, from the perfuafive powers of his eloquence, and the charming sweetnefs of his language, called "the Mellifluous Doctor." The effects which his difcourfes produced on St. Auguftin are described in Confeffionum, lib. v. cap. 14. He had bid farewel to poetry the year before; his last poem being written upon the death of Lord Harrington, a nobleman of extraordinary piety and learning. Now the English Church had gained a fecond St. Austin, for I think none was fo like him before his conversion; none fo like St. Ambrofe after it: And if his youth had the infirmities of the one, his age had the excellencies of the other; the learning and holiness of both. And now all his ftudies, which had been occafionally diffufed, were all concentred in divinity. Now he had a new calling, new thoughts, and a new employment for his wit and eloquence. Now all his earthly affections were changed into divine love; and all the faculties of his own foul were engaged in the converfion of others;-in preaching the glad tidings of remiffion to repenting finners, and peace to each troubled foul. To thefe he applied himself with all care and diligence: And now fuch a change was wrought in him that he could say with David, "O how amiable are thy “tabernacles, O Lord God of Hofts!" Now he declared openly," That "when he required a temporal, God gave him a fpiritual bleffing." And that "He was now gladder to be a door-keeper in the house of God than "he could be to enjoy the nobleft of all temporal employments." Presently after he entered into his holy profeffion, the king fent for him, and made him his chaplain in ordinary, and promised to take a particular care for his preferment. And though his long familiarity with scholars and perfons of greatest quality was fuch as might have given fome men boldness enough to have preached to any eminent auditory; yet his modefty in this employment. was fuch that he could not be perfuaded to it, but went ufually accompa-nied with fome one friend, to preach privately in fome village not far from London; his first fermon 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 was expected from him, both by his majesty and others, yet he was fo happy (which few are) as to fatisfy and exceed their expectations; preaching the word fo as fhewed his own heart was poffeffed with those very thoughts and joys that he laboured to diftil into others: A preacher in earneft, weeping fometimes for his auditory, fometimes with. them; always preaching to himself like an angel from a cloud, but in none; carrying fome, as St. Paul was, to heaven in holy raptures, and enticing others by a facred art and courtship to amend their lives: Here picturing a vice fo as to make it ugly to thofe that practifed it, and a virtue N fo fo as to make it be beloved even by thofe that loved it not, and all this with a moft particular grace and an inexpreffible addition of comeliness. There may be fome that may incline to think (fuch indeed as have not heard him), that my affection to my friend hath tranfported me to an immoderate commendation of his preaching: If this meets with any fuch, let me intreat, though I will omit many, yet that they will receive a double witness for what I fay, it being attefted by a gentleman of worth, (Mr. Chidley', a frequent hearer of his fermons) in part of a funeral elegy wrote 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 tranfplanted it; Taught it both time and place, and brought it home TO PIETY, which it doth best become. For fay, had ever pleasure such a dress? Have you feen crimes fo fhap'd, or loveliness Such as his lips did clothe religion in? Had not reproof a beauty paffing fin? Corrupted Nature forrow'd that she stood So near the danger of becoming good. And when he preach'd the with'd her ears exempt How did his facred flatt'ry beguile Men to amend? More of this, and more witneffes might be brought, but I forbear and return ". That f Rather Mr Chudleigh :-John Chudleigh, M. A. of Wadham College in Oxford, and the eldeft fon of Sir George Chudleigh, Bart. of Alfton in Devonshire. The character of Dr. Donne's Sermons is faithfully delineated by his fon in the Dedication of them to Charles I. "They who have been converfant in the works of the holiest "men of all times, cannot but acknowledge in these the fame fpirit with which they writ; ❝reasonable demonstrations every where in the subjects, comprehenfible by reason: As for thofe things which cannot be comprehended by our reafon alone, they are no where made " easier That fummer, in the very fame month in which he entered into facred orders and was made the King's Chaplain, his majesty then going his pro grefs, "eafier to faith than here; and for the other part of our nature, which confifts in our paffions "and in our affections, they are here raised and laid, and governed and difpofed, in a manner, "according to the will of the author. The doctrine itself which is taught here is primitively "Christian; the fathers are every where confulted with reverence, but apoftolical writings "only appealed to as the laft Rule of Faith. Laftly, fuch is the conjuncture here of zeal and difcretion, that whilft it is the main fcope of the author in these Discourses, that glory be "given to God, this is accompanied every where with a fcrupulous care and endeavour, that "peace be likewife fettled amongst men." The two following extracts will enable the reader to form a judgment of Dr. Donne's style and mode of writing: "It is not enough not to truft in flefh, but thou must truft in that that is fpirit. And "when thou art to direct thy trust upon him who is fpirit, the spirit of power and of confo"lation, ftop not, ftray not, divert not upon evil fpirits to feeke advancement or to feeke "knowledge from them, nor upon good spirits, the glorious faints of God in heaven, to fecke "falvation from them, nor upon thine own spirit, in an over-valuation of thy purity or thy "merits. For there is a peftilent pride in an imaginary humility, and an infectious foule"neffe in an imaginary purity; but turne onely to the onely invifible and immortall God, "who turnes to thee in fo many names and notions of power and confolation in this one "pfalme, (Pf. Ixii.). In last verse but one of this pfalme David fayes, God hath spoken once, "and twice have I heard him. God hath faid enough, but twice in this pfalme hath he re"peated this, in the fecond and in the fixt verfe, He onely is my rocke, and my falvation, and my defence. And, as it is inlarged in the seventh verfe, my refuge and my glory. If my re"fuge,-what enemy can purfue me? If my defence,-what tentation shall wound me? If my "rocke, what storme fhall shake me? If my falvation,-what melancholy fhall deject me? If my glory,-what calumny fhall defame me? "I must not stay you now, to infufe into you the feverall confolations of these feverall' "names and notions of God towards you. But goe your severall wayes home, and every "foule take with him that name, which may minifter most comfort unto him. Let him that " is pursued with any particular tentation, invest God, as God is a refuge, a fanctuary. Let "him that is buffeted with the meffenger of Satan, battered with his own concupifcence, "receive God, as God is his defence and target. Let him that is shaked with perplexities in "his understanding or scruples in his confcience lay hold upon God, as God is his rocke and "his anchor. Let him that hath any diffident jealoufie or fufpition of the free and full mercy "of God apprehend God, as God is his falvation. And him that walks in the inglorioufnefle " and contempt of this world contemplate God, as God is his glory. Any of these notions is "enough grefs was entreated to receive an entertainment in the univerfity of Cambridge; and Mr. Donne attending his majesty at that time, his majesty was "enough to any man, but God is all these and all elfe that all foules can thinke, to every 66 man. Wee shut up both these confiderations (man fhould not (that is not all), God fhould "be relied upon) with that of the Prophet Truft ye not in a friend, put not your confidence in a "guide, keepe the doores of thy mouth from her that lies in thy bosome (there is the exclusion of "trust in man): And then he adds in the seventh verse, because it ftands thus between man "and man, I will looke unto the Lord, I will locke unto the God of my falvation, my God will "heare me." (LXXX Sermons, 1640, p. 662.) "Now to make up a circle, by returning to our first word, remember: As we re"member God, fo for his fake let us remember one another. In my long absence and far "distance from hence remember me, as I fhall do you in the ears of that God to whom the "farthest east and the fartheft weft are but as the right and the left ear in one of us; we hear "with both at once, and he hears in both at once; remember me, not my abilities, for when "I confider my Apostleship that I was fent to you, I am in St. Paul's quorum, quorum ego fum "minimus, the leaft of them that have been fent; and when I confider my infirmities, I am in his quorum in another commiffion, another way, quorum ego maximus, the greatest of "them; but remember my labors and endeavours, at least my defire to make fure your fal"vation. And I fhall remember your religious cheerfulness in hearing the word, and your "chriftianly respect towards all them that bring that word unto you, and towards myself in "particular far above my merit. And so as your eyes that stay here and mine that must be ❝far of, for all that distance shall meet every morning in looking upon that fame fun, and "meet every night in looking upon the fame moon; fo our hearts may meet morning and " evening in that God which fees and hears every where; that you may come thither to him "with your prayers, that I (if I may be of ufe for his glory and your edification in this "place) may be restored to you again; and may come to him with my prayer, that what "Paul foever plant amongst you, or what Apollos foever water, God himself will give the "increase: That if I never meet you again till we have all paffed the gate of death, yet in "the gates of heaven I may meet you all, and there fay to my Saviour and your Saviour, "that which he said to his father, "Of those whom thou haft given me have I not loft one.” "Remember me thus, you that stay in this kingdome of peace, where no fword is drawn "but the fword of justice, as I fhall remember you in those kingdomes, where ambition on "one fide and a necessary defence from unjust perfecution on the other fide hath drawn many "swords; and Christ Jefus remember us all in his kingdome; to which though we must fail "through a fea, it is the fea of his blood, where no foul fuffers fhipwreck; though we must "be blown with strange winds, with fighs and groans for our fins, yet it is the spirit of God that blows all this wind, and fhall blow away all contrary winds of diffidence or distrust ❝ in |