death; men who sought no other way to divert sadness, but strong drink in riotous houses, and there drank up David's cup of malediction, the cup of con+ demned men, of death, in the infection of that place. For these men that died in their sins, that sinned in their dying, that sought and hunted after death so sinfully, we have little comfort of such men; in the phrase of this text, "they were dead," for they are dead still; as Moses said of the Egyptians, I am afraid we may say of these men, "We shall see them no more for ever."

In the next page but one are some curiously solemn reflections on the mingled dust of dead relations in that very church (St. Dunstan's) where this sermon was preached.

In this house where we stand now, the house of God and of his saints, God affords us a fair beam of this consolation, in the phrase of this text also, "they were dead." How applicable to you in this place, is that which God said to Moses, "Put off thy shoes, for thou treadest on holy ground;" put off all confidence, all standing, all relying upon worldly assurances, and consider upon what ground you tread; upon ground so holy, as that all the ground is made

of the bodies of Christians, and therein hath received a second consecration. Every puff of wind within these walls, may blow the father into the son's eyes, or the wife into her husband's, or his into her's or both into their children's, or their children's into both. Every grain of dust that flies here, is a piece of a Christian: you need not distinguish your pews by figures; you need not say, I sit within so many of such a neighbour, but I sit within so many inches of my husbands's, or wife's, or child's, or friend's grave. Ambitious men never made more shift for places in court, then dead men for graves in churches; and as in our later times, we have seen two and two almost in every place and office, so almost every grave is oppressed with twins; and as at Christ's resurrection, some of the dead arose out of their graves, that were buried again; so in this lamentable calamity, the dead were buried, and thrown up again before they were resolved to dust, to make room for more.

Lord Falkland styles Donne "one of the most witty and most eloquent of modern divines." I cannot say, that I have found his writings embossed thick enough with brilliant passages, to repay the expence of time in

searching for them. Others may be more for tunate. Donne is more celebrated as a poet, than as a prose-writer; and his talents, and particularly his wit, are generally acknowledged. His other works are:

4. Essays in Divinity, &c. being several Disquisitions interwoven with Meditations and Prayers, before he went into holy orders. Lond. 1651, 12mo. published by his son.

There

5. Letters to several Persons of Honour. Lond. 1654, 4to. published by his son. are also several of his letters, and others to him from the queen of Bohemia, the earl of Carlisle, archbishop Abbot, and Ben. Jonson, printed in a book, entitled "A Collection of Letters, made by Sir Tobie Mathews, knight. 1660, 8vo."

6. "The Ancient History of the Septuagint;" translated from the Greek of Aristeas, London, 1633, 12mo. This translation was revised and corrected by another hand, and published in 1685, 8vo.

7. Bialavatos: or a Declaration of that Paradox or Thesis, that Self-homicide is not so naturally a Sin, that it may not be otherwise. Lond. 1644, 1648, &c. 4to. It was dedicated to lord Herbert of Cherbury.

Besides the above works, he left, according to his biographer, "The Resultance of Fourteen Hundred Authors, most of them abridged and analysed with his own hand. All the business likewise that passed of any public consequence, either in this, or any of our neighbouring nations, he abbreviated either in Latin, and in the language of that nation, and kept them by him for useful memorials. So he did the copies of divers letters and cases of conscience, that had concerned his friends, with his observations and solutions of them, and divers other matters of importance, all partically and methodically digested by him."

Walton's character of him is a very interesting one. "He was (he says) of stature, moderately tall, of a strait and equally proportioned body, to which all his words and actions gave inexpressible addition of comeliness. The melancholy and pleasant humours were in him so contempered, that each gave advantage to the other, and made his company one of the delights of mankind. His fancy was inimitably high, equalled only by his great wit, both being made useful by a commanding judgment. His aspect was cheerful, and such as gave a silent testimony of a

clear knowing soul, and of a conscience at peace with itself. His melting eye shewed, that he had a soft heart, full of noble compassion; of too brave a soul to offer injuries, and too much a christian not to pardon them in others. He was, by nature, highly passionate; yet very humane, and of so tender a spirit, that he never beheld the miseries of mankind without pity and relief."