MADAME,

Those things which God dissolves at once, as he shall do the Sun, and

Moon, and those bodies at the last conflagration, he never intends to

reunite again; but in those things, which he takes in pieces, as he doth

man, and wife, in these divorces by death, and in single persons, by the

divorce of body and soul, God hath another purpose to make them up again.

That piece which he takes to himself, is presently cast in a mould, and in

an instant made fit for his use; for heaven is not a place of a

proficiency, but of present perfection. That piece which he leaves behinde

in this world, by the death of a part thereof, growes fitter and fitter

for him, by the good use of his corrections, and the intire conformity to

his will. Nothing disproportions us, nor makes us so uncapable of being

reunited to those whom we loved here, as murmuring, or not advancing the

goodness of him, who hath removed them from hence. We would wonder, to see

a man, who in a wood were left to his liberty, to fell what trees he

would, take onely the crooked, and leave the streightest trees; but that

man hath perchance a ship to build, and not a house, and so hath use of

that kinde of timber: let not us, who know that in Gods house there are

many Mansions, but yet have no modell, no designe of the forme of that

building, wonder at his taking in of his materialls, why he takes the

young, and leaves the old, or why the sickly overlive those that had

better health. We are not bound to think that souls departed, have

devested all affections towards them, whom they left here; but we are

bound to think, that for all their loves they would not be here again:

Then is the will of God done in Earth, as it is in Heaven, when we neither

pretermit his actions, nor resist them; neither pass them over in an

inconsideration, as though God had no hand in them, nor go about to take

them out of his hands, as though we could direct him to do them better. As

Gods Scriptures are his will, so his actions are his will; both are

Testaments, because they testifie his minde to us. It is not lawfull to

adde a scedule to either of his wills: as they do ill, who adde to his

written will, the Scriptures, a scedule of Ap[o]cryphall books, so do they

also, who to his other will, his manifested actions, adde Apocryphall

conditions, and a scedule of such limitations as these, If God would have

stayed thus long, or, If God would have proceeded in this or this manner,

I could have born it. To say that our afflictions are greater then we can

bear, is so near to despairing, as that the same words express both; for

when we consider _Caines_ words in that originall tongue in which God

spake, we cannot tell whether the words be, My punishment is greater then

can be born; or, My sin is greater then can be forgiven. But, Madame, you

who willingly sacrificed your self to God, in your obedience to him, in

your own sickness, cannot be doubted to dispute with him about any part of

you which he shall be pleased to require at your hands. The difference is

great in the loss of an arme, or a head; of a child, or a husband: but to

them, who are incorporated into Christ, their head, there can be no

beheading; upon you, who are a member of the spouse of Christ, the Church,

there can fall no widowhead, nor orphanage upon those children to whom God

is father. I have not another office by your husbands death, for I was

your Chaplaine before, in my daily prayers; but I shall inlarge that

office with other Collects then before, that God will continue to you,

that peace which you have ever had in him, and send you quiet, and

peaceable dispositions in all them with whom you shall have any thing to

do in your temporall estate and matters of this world. _Amen._

_Your Ladiships very humble and

thankfull servant in Christ

Jesus_ J. Donne.

At my poor house at S.

_Pauls_. _26. Octob. 1624._

[vi.]

_To my honoured friend S{r}_ T. Lucey.

_SIR_,

I make account that this writing of letters, when it is with any

seriousness, is a kind of extasie, and a departure and secession and

suspension of the soul, w{ch} doth then cõmunicate itself to two bodies:

And, as I would every day provide for my souls last convoy, though I know

not when I shall die, and perchance I shall never die, so for these

extasies in letters, I oftentimes deliver my self over in writing when I

know not when those letters shall be sent to you, and many times they

never are, for I have a little satisfaction in seeing a letter written to

you upon my table, though I meet no opportunity of sending it. Especially

this summer, when either by my early retiring home, or your irresolutions

of your own purposes, or some other possessions of yours, you did lesse

reveale to me your progresses, and stations, and where I might crosse you

by letters, then heretofore: I make shift to lay little fault upon you,

because my pardon might be easier, if I transgress into a longer and

busier letter then your Countrey sports admit; but you may read it in

winter: And by that time I may more clearly express my self for those

things which have entred into me, concerning your soul: for as the

greatest advantage which mans soul is thought to have beyond others, is

that which they call _Actum reflexum_, and _iteratum_, (for Beasts do the

same things as we do, but they do not consider nor remember the

circumstances and inducements, and by what power and faculty it is that

they do them) so of those which they call _Actum reflexum_ the noblest is

that which reflects upon the soul itself, and considers and meditates it.

Into which considerations when I walke after my slow and unperfect pace, I

begin to think that as litigious men tryed with suits admit any

arbitrement; and Princes travailed with long and wastfull war descend to

such conditions of peace, as they are soon after ashamed to have embraced:

so Philosophers, and so all sects of Christians, after long disputations

and controversies, have allowed many things for positive and dogmaticall

truths which are not worthy of that dignity. And so many doctrines have

grown to be the ordinary diet and food of our spirits, and have place in

the pap of Catechismes, which were admitted but as Physick in that

present distemper, or accepted in a lazie weariness, when men, so they

might have something to relie upon, and to excuse themselves from more

painfull inquisition, never examined what that was. To which indisposition

of ours the Casuists are so indulgent, as that they allow a conscience to

adhere to any probable opinion against a more probable, and do never binde

him to seek out which is the more probable, but give him leave to

dissemble it and to depart from it, if by mischance he come to know it.

This, as it appears in all sciences, so most manifestly in Physick, which

for a long time considering nothing, but plain curing and that but by

example and precedent, the world at last longed for some certain Canons

and Rules, how these cures might be accomplished; And when men are

inflamed with this desire, and that such a fire breaks out, that it rages

and consumes infinitly by heat of argument, except some of authority

interpose. This produced _Hippocrates_ his Aphorismes; and the world

slumbred or took breath in his resolution divers hundreds of years: And

then in _Galens_ time, which was not satisfied with the effect of curing,

nor with the knowledge how to cure, broke out another desire of finding

out the causes why those simples wrought those effects. Then _Galen_

rather to stay their stomachs then that he gave them enough, taught them

the qualities of the four Elements, and arrested them upon this, that all

differences of qualities proceeded from them. And after (not much before

our time), men perceiving that all effects in Physick could not be derived

from these beggerly and impotent properties, of the Elements, and that

therefore they were driven often to that miserable refuge of specifique

form, and of antipathy and sympathy, we see the world hath turned upon new

principles which are attributed to _Paracelsus_, but (indeed) too much to

his honour. Certainly it is also so in the Physick of our soul, Divinity,

for in the Primitive Church when amongst the Fathers there were so divers

opinions of the state of the soul, presently after this life, they easily

inclined to be content to do as much for them dead as when they were

alive, and so concurred in a charitable disposition to pray for them;

which manner of prayer then in use no Christian Church at this day, having

rereived better light, will allow of. So also when in the beginning of S.

_Augustines_ time Grace had been so much advanced that mans Nature was

scarce admitted to be so much as any means or instrument (not onely no

kinde of cause) of his own good works: And soon after in S. _Augustines_

time also mans free will (by fierce opposition and arguing against the

former error) was too much overvalued, and admitted into too near degrees

of fellowship with Grace; those times admitted a doctrine and form of

reconciliation, which though for reverence to the time, both the

Dominicans and Jesuits at this day in their great quarrell about Grace and

Free will would yet seem to maintaine, yet indifferent and dispassioned

men of that Church see there is no possibility in it, and therefore accuse

it of absurdity and almost of heresie. I think it falls out thus also in

the matter of the soul: for Christian Religion presuming a soul, and

intending principally her happiness in the life to come, hath been content

to accept any way which hath been obtruded, how this soul is begun in us.

Hence it is that whole Christian Churches arest themselves upon

propagation from parents; and other whole Christian Churches allow onely

infusion from God. In both which opinions there appear such infirmities

as it is time to look for a better: for whosoever will adhere to the way

of propagation can never evict necessarily and certainly a naturall

immortality in the soul, if the soul result out of matter, nor shall he

ever prove that all mankind hath any more then one soul: as certainly of

all beasts, if they receive such souls as they have from their parents,

every species can have but one soul. And they which follow the opinion of

infusion from God, and of a new creation, (which is now the more common

opinion), as they can very hardly defend the doctrin of original sin (the

soul is forced to take this infection, and comes not into the body of her

own disposition), so shall they never be able to prove that all those whom

we see in the shape of men have an immortall and reasonable soul, because

our parents are as able as any other species is to give us a soul of

growth and of sense, and to perform all vitall and animall functions, and

so without infusion of such a soul may produce a creature as wise and well

disposed as any horse or Elephant, of which degree many whom we see come

far short; nor hath God bound or declared himself that he will always

create a soul for every embryon, there is yet therefore no opinion in

Philisophy, nor Divinity, so well established as constrains us to beleeve,

both that the soul is immortall, and that every particular man hath such a

soul: which since out of the great mercy of our God we do constantly

beleeve, I am ashamed that we do not also know it by searching farther:

But as sometimes we had rather beleeve a Travellers lie then go to

disprove him, so men rather cleave to these ways then seek new: yet

because I have meditated therein, I will shortly acquaint you with what I

think; for I would not be in danger of that law of _Moses_, That if a man

dig a pit, and cover it not, he must recompense those which are damnified

by it: which is often interpreted of such as shake old opinions, and do

not establish new as certain but leave consciences in a worse danger then

they found them in. I beleeve that law of _Moses_ hath in it some mysterie

and appliablenesse; for by that law men are onely then bound to that

indemnity and compensation, if an Oxe or an Asse (that is, such as are of

a strong constitution and accustomed to labour) fall therein; but it is

not said so, if a Sheep or a Goat fall: no more are we, if men in a

sillinesse or wantonnesse will stumble or take a scandall, bound to

rectifie them at all times. And therefore because I justly presume you

strong and watchful enough, I make account that I am not obnoxious to that

law, since my meditations are neither too wide nor too deep for you,

except onely that my way of expressing them may be extended beyond your

patience and pardon, which I will therefore tempt no longer at this time.

_Your very affectionate friend

and servant and lover_

I. Donne.

From _Micham_, my

close prison ever

since I saw you,

_9 Octob._

[vii.]

_To the Noblest Knight S{r}_ Edward Herbert _L. of_ Cherbury; _sent to him

with his Book_ Biathanatos.