And, as he rounds the earth to murder, fure All grace from him, crucify'd there before. Under that little feal great gifts I fend, Both works and prayers, pawns and fruits of a friend. To you that bear his name large bounty deal. JOHN DONNE. IN SACRAM ANCHORAM PISCATORIS, GEORGE HERBERT. Quod Crux nequibat fixa clavique additi, Although the croís could not Chrift here detain, Nor yet thy eloquence here keep him ftill, But only whil'ft thou speak'ft, this anchor will: This certain anchor add a feal, and fo Let the world reel, we and all ours stand fure, GEORGE HERBERT. I return to tell the reader, that befides thefe verfes to his dear Mr. Herbert, and that hymn that I mentioned to be fung in the Quire of St. Paul's Church, he did alfo fhorten and beguile many fad hours by compofing other facred ditties, and he writ an hymn on his death-bed, which bears this title: AN A HYMN TO GOD MY GOD, IN MY SICKNESS, MARCH 23, 1630. SINCE I am coming to that holy room, Since my phyficians by their loves are grown So, in his purple wrapt, receive me, Lord! Be this my text, my fermon to mine own, "That he may raife, therefore the Lord throws down." If these fall under the cenfure of a foul, whofe too much mixture with earth, makes it unfit to judge of these high raptures and illuminations, let him know that many holy and devout men have thought the foul of Prudentius' to be moft refined, when not many days before his death Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, a Chriftian poet of the fourth century, was a native of Spain. He spent the earlier period of his life in more active scenes, diftinguishing himself as an advocate at the bar, a foldier in the camp, and laftly as a courtier in the Imperial Court. He attempted not to write verfes until he was advanced in years: "Tandem vero in fenectute "repulfá mundi vanitate ad facras Scripturas fe contulit, et Carmine ac Profá multa utriufque "Teftamenti abftrufa expofuit." (J. Trithemius.)-Gyraldus obferves, that in his works there is more of religious zeal, than of the beauties of poetry, Melior omnino Chriftianus eft quam Poeta. In the proem to the hymns of the Cathemerinon, having defcribed his conduct in the former part of his life, he declares his intention of celebrating God in daily hymns, and of exercifing himself in difcuffing facred fubjects. Hymnis continuet dies, "Nec nox ulla vacet, quin Dominum canat; "Pugnet contra hærefes; catholicam difcutiat fidem; "Conculcet facra gentium; "Labem, Roma, tuis inferat Idolis, "Carmen Martyribus devoveat, laudet Apoftolos. death"he charged it to present his God each morning and evening with a new and spiritual fong;" juftified by the example of King David and the good King Hezekiah, who upon the renovation of his years paid his thankful vows to Almighty God in a royal hymn, which he concludes in thefe words," The Lord was ready to fave, therefore I will fing my fongs "to the ftringed inftruments all the days of my life in the temple of my "God." The latter part of his life may be faid to be a continued ftudy; for as he ufually preached once a week, if not oftener, so after his fermon he never gave his eyes reft till he had chofen out a new text, and that night cast his fermon into a form, and his text into divifions; and the next day betook himself to confult the fathers, and fo commit his meditations to his memory, which was excellent. But upon Saturday he usually gave himself and his mind a rest from the weary burthen of his week's meditations, and ufually fpent that day in vifitation of friends or fome other diverfions of his thoughts; and would fay, "that he gave both his body and mind that re"freshment, that he might be enabled to do the work of the day follow"ing, not faintly, but with courage and cheerfulness." Nor was his age only fo induftrious, but in the moft unfettled days of his youth, his bed was not able to detain him beyond the hour of four in a morning; and it was no and it was no common business that drew him out of his chamber till paft ten; all which time was employed in ftudy, though he took great liberty after it. And if this feem ftrange, it may gain a belief by the visible fruits of his labours, fome of which remain as teftimonies of what is here written, for he left the refultance of 1400 authors, most of them abridged and analyfed with his own hand; he left alfo fix score of his fermons, all written with his own hand; alfo an exact and labori ous It was Dr. Hammond's method, and furely not unworthy of imitation, " After every fermon "to refolve upon the enfuing fubject; that being done, to pursue the course of study which "he was then in hand with, referving the clofe of the week for the provifion for the next "Lord's Day; whereby not only a conftant progrefs was made in fcience, but materials "unawares were gained unto the immediate future work: For, he faid, be the fubjects "treated of never fo diftant, fomewhat will infallibly fall in, conducible to the prefent purpofe." (Fell's Life of Dr. Hammond, p. 11.) ous treatise concerning felf-murther', called "Biathanatos," wherein all the laws violated by that act are diligently furveyed, and judiciously cen We have a full account of this tractate in the two following letters. "SIR, TO THE NOBLEST KNIGHT, "SIR EDWARD HERBERT.. fured;; "I make account that thys booke hath enough perform'd yt wch yt undertooke, both by "argument and example. Itt fhall therefore the leffe need to bee yttfelfe another example "of ye doctrine. Itt fhall not therefore kyll yttfelfe; that ys, not bury yttfelfe; for if ytt should "do fo, thofe refons by wch that act should bee defended or excus'd, were alfo loft with ytt. "Since it is content to live, ytt cannot chufe a wholfomer ayre than yo' library, where autors "of all complexions are preferv'd. If any of them grudge thys booke a roome, and fuf"pect ytt of new or dangerous doctrine, you, who know us all, can beft moderate. To "those reasons wch I know your love to mee wyll make in my faver and discharge, you may "add thys, That though this doctrine hath not been tought nor defended by writers, yet they, "most of any forte of men in the world, have practis'd ytt. "Yo' very true and earnest frinde, and fervant and lover, "J. DONNE." This addrefs to Sir Edward Herbert, is prefixed to the original MS. of Dr. Donne's: BIA ANATO, which is now preferved in the Bodleian Library and was given to that place by Lord Herbert himself, in the year 1642, with the following infcription in capitals: HUNC LIBRUM AB AUTHORE CUM EPISTOLA QUÆ PRÆIT ATTOгpaøn DONO SIBI DATUM DUM EQUESTRIS OLIM ESSET ORDINIS EDVARDUS HERBERT, JAM BARO DE CHERBURY IN ANGLIA, ET CASTRI INSULÆ DE KERRY IN HIBERNIA, E SUA BIBLIOTHECA IN BODLEIANAM TRANSTULIT MERITISS. IN ALMAM MATREM ACAD. OXON. PIETATISET OBSERVANTIÆ ΜΝΗΜΟΣΥΝΟΝ, M,DC,XLII. "TO SIR ROBERT CARRE, NOW EARL OF ANKERAM,, "WITH MY BOOK BIA@ANATOZ, AT MY GOING INTO GERMANY. "SIR, "I had need to do fomewhat towards you above my promifes; How weak are my perform❝ances, when eve n my promises are defective? I cannot promise, no not in mine own hopes, equally to your merit towards me. But befides the poems, of which you took a promise, "I fend fured; a treatife written in his younger days, which alone might declare him then not only perfect in the Civil and Canon Law, but in many other fuch "I fend you another book, to which there belongs this hiftory. It was written by me many "years fince, and because it is upon a mifinterpretable fubject, I have always gone fo near fuppreffing it, as that it is onely not burnt: No hand hath paffed upon it to copy it, nor many eyes to read it; onely to fome particular friends in both univerfities then when I writ "it did I communicate it; and I remember I had this anfwer, that certainly there was a falfe "thread in it, but not eafily found Keep it, I pray, with the fame jealoufie; let any "that your difcretion admits to the fight of it know the date of it, and that it is a book "written by Jack Donne, and not by Dr. Donne. Referve it for me if I live, and if I die I "only forbid it the preffe and the fire: Publish it not, but yet burn it not; and between those "do what you will with it. Love me ftill thus far for your own fake, that when you with"draw your love from me, you will find fo many unworthineffes in me, as you grow afhamed "of having had fo long and fo much, fuch a thing as Your poor fervt. in Chr. Jef. "J. DONNE." It was first published by authority in 1644, and dedicated by his son, John Donne, to Lord Philip Herbert. In this dedication he affigns the reafon of his disobedience to his father's order. "It was writ long fince by my father, and by him forbid both the preffe and the fire; neither "had I fubjected it now to the publique view, but that I could finde no certain way to defend "it from the one, but by committing it to the other; for fince the beginning of this war my "study having been often fearched, all my books (and al-moft my braines, by their continuall "allarums) fequeftered for the ufe of the committee; two dangers appeared more eminently "to hover over this, being then a manufcript; a danger of being utterly loft, and a danger "of being utterly found, and fathered by fome of thofe wild atheists, who, as if they came "into the world by conqueft, owne all other men's wits, and are refolved to be learned in "defpite of their ftarres, that would fairely have enclined them to a more modest and honest "courfe of life." The fyftem advanced in this book has been accurately examined, and with great strength of argument refuted by the Rev. Charles Moore, in his "Full Enquiry into the Subject of Suicide," vol. I. p. 83,-103, and vol. II. p. 1,-41. The learned author of that excellent work, in his letter, dated Jan. 27, 1794, informs me, that fince its publication he has feen a small tract, called "Life's Prefervative against Self-killing, &c. by John Syer, Minifter of Leigh in Effex, London, 1637," which, though published after Dr. Donne's death, yet before the Biathanatos appeared, is in effect a very full and complete answer to it, written in its own method of fcholaftic divifions and fub-divifions, ad infinitum. The following extract, containing a short criticifm on this work of Donne, will not be unacceptable to the learned reader. "Donne, docteur Angolis et fçavant Theologien de ce "fiecle, |