for his wife's death, would, as Jacob said, make his days few, and, respecting his bodily health, evil too; and of this there were some visible signs.

At his going he left his friends of Lincoln's-Inn, and they him, with many reluctations; for though he could not say, as St. Paul to his Ephesians, "Behold, 66 you to whom I have preached the kingdom of God "shall from henceforth see my face no more," yet he, believing himself to be in a consumption, questioned, and they feared it; all concluding that his troubled mind, with the help of his unintermitted studies, hastened the decays of his weak body. God turned it to the best; for this employment (to say nothing of the event of it) did not only divert him from those too serious studies and sad thoughts, but seemed to give him a new life, by a true occasion of joy, to be an eye-witness of the health of his most dear and most honoured mistress, the Queen of Bohemia, in a foreign nation, and to be a witness of that gladness which she expressed to see him, who having formerly known him a courtier, was much joyed to see him in a canonical habit, and more glad to be an earwitness of his excellent and powerful preaching.

About fourteen months after his departure out of England he returned to his friends of Lincoln's-Inn, with his sorrows moderated, and his health improved, and there betook himself to his constant course of preaching.

About a year after his return out of Germany Dr. Cary was made Bishop of Exeter, and by his removal the Deanery of St. Paul's being vacant, the King sent to Dr. Donne, and appointed him to attend him at dinner the next day. When his Majesty was sate down, before he had ate any meat, he said, after his pleasant manner, "Dr. Donne, I have invited you to dinner; "and though you sit not down with me, yet I will "carve to you of a dish that I know you love well; "for knowing you love London, I do therefore make 66 you Dean of Paul's; and when I have dined, then "do you take your beloved dish home to your study; say grace there to yourself, and much good may it "' do you."

Immediately after he came to his deanery he employed workmen to repair and beautify the chapel, suffering, as holy David once vowed, his eyes and temples to take no rest till he had first beautified the house of God.

The next quarter following, when his father-inlaw, Sir George Moor (whom time had made a lover and admirer of him) came to pay to him the conditioned sum of twenty pounds, he refused to receive it, and said, as good Jacob did, when he heard his beloved son Joseph was alive, "It is enough;" you have been kind to me and mine: I know your present condition is such as not to abound; and I hope mine is or will be such as not to need it: I will therefore receive no Volume 1.

D

more from you upon that contract; and, in testimony of it, freely gave him up his bond.

Immediately after his admission into his deanery the vicarage of St. Dunstan-in-the-West, London, fell to him by the death of Dr. White, the advowson of it having been given to him long before by his honourable friend, Richard Earl of Dorset, then the patron, and confirmed by his brother, the late deceased Edward, both of them men of much honour.

By these, and another ecclesiastical endowment, which fell to him about the same time, given to him formerly by the Earl of Kent, he was enabled to become charitable to the poor, and kind to his friends, and to make such provision for his children, that they were not left scandalous, as relating to their or his profession and quality.

The next parliament, which was within that present year, he was chosen Prolocutor to the Convocation, and about that time was appointed by his Majesty, his most gracious master, to preach very many occasional sermons, as at St. Paul's Cross, and other places; all which employments he performed to the admiration of the representative body of the whole clergy of this nation.

He was once, and but once, clouded with the King's displeasure, and it was about this time, which was occasioned by some malicious whisperer, who had told his Majesty that Dr. Donne had put on the general

1 humour of the pulpits, and was become busy in insi nuating a fear of the King's inclining to Popery, and a dislike of his government; and particularly for his then turning the evening lectures into catechising, and expounding the Prayer of our Lord, and of the Belief and Commandments. His Majesty was the more inclinable to believe this, for that a person of nobility and great note, betwixt whom and Dr. Donne there had been a great friendship, was at this very time discarded the court, (I shall forbear his name, unless I had a fairer occasion) and justly committed to prison, which begot many rumours in the common people, who in this nation think they are not wise unless they be busy about what they understand not, and especially about religion.

The King received this news with so much discontent and restlessness, that he would not suffer the sun to set and leave him under this doubt, but sent for Dr. Donne, and required his answer to the accusation, which was so clear and satisfactory, that the King said " he was right glad he rested no longer under the sus6" picion." When the King had said this, Dr. Donne kneeled down and thanked his Majesty, and protested his answer was faithful and free from all collusion, and therefore desired that he might not rise till, as in like cases he always had from God, so he might have from his Majesty, some assurance that he stood clear and fair in his opinion. Then the King raised him from

his knees with his own hands, and protested he believed him; and that he knew he was an honest man, and doubted not but that he loved him truly: and having thus dismissed him, he called some lords of his council into his chamber, and said, with much earnestness, My Doctor is an honest man; and, my "Lords, I was never better satisfied with an answer "than he hath now made me; and I always rejoice "when I think that by my means he became a di"vine."

He was made Dean the fiftieth year of his age, and in his fifty-fourth year a dangerous sickness seized him, which inclined him to a consumption; but God, as Job thankfully acknowledged, preserved his spirit, and kept his intellectuals as clear and perfect as when that sickness first seized his body: but it continued long, and threatened him with death, which he dreaded not.

In this distemper of body his dear friend Dr. Henry King, then chief residentiary of that church, and late Bishop of Chichester, a man generally known by the clergy of this nation, and as generally noted for his obliging nature, visited him daily; and observing that his sickness rendered his recovery doubtful, he chose a seasonable time to speak to him to this purpose.

"Mr. Dean, I am, by your favour, no stranger to your temporal estate, and you are no stranger to "the offer lately made us for the renewing a lease of