TO

THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD,

JOHN,

LORD BISHOP OF LINCOLN,

THIS REPUBLICATION OF THE WORKS OF DOCTOR DONNE,

IS DEDICATED,

AS A TOKEN OF UNFEIGNED RESPECT,

BY

HIS LORDSHIP'S FAITHFUL AND OBEDIENT SERVANT,

THE EDITOR.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

THE republication of the theological works of Dr. Donne appeared to me highly desirable on my first reading the eighty sermons in 1831. On the appearance of Mr. COLERIDGE'S Table Talk, in which he expresses very strongly his wish to the same effect, my desire was ripened into a plan of editing a selection from the sermons. I was fully sensible of my inadequacy, especially in antiquarian learning, to the task of giving a complete edition of Donne, as old authors are now edited: but I was willing to have enlarged opportunities of studying what appeared to me to be one of the earliest and best expositions of the divinity of our English church; and desirous that my first literary labour should be one likely to confer a benefit upon that Church, and upon English literature in general. With this view I made application to several publishers; but it was not till the spring of 1837 that I found one who was willing to undertake the work. It was then proposed, that a selection from the Sermons should be made, which should not exceed four octavo volumes. On this plan the edition was begun; and before it was altered, and a complete republication resolved on, Sermons X. and XI. of the folio eighty Sermons, had been marked for omission, and the numbers had proceeded from the IXth; so that from that Sermon to the LXIInd, where those two are inserted, the Sermons in our edition are numbered two short of those in the folio eighty Sermons. I had

also, while a selection was contemplated, taken the liberty of omitting one or two passages containing allusions, common at the time when they were delivered, but likely to offend modern readers, and to be laid to my charge as the professed selector. Upon the change of plan, however, although it was too late to remedy the omissions which had been made, I adhered scrupulously to the text of my author. So that, except in those instances, (which are no more than above-mentioned,) the reader has these Sermons in their original unmutilated form.

Circumstances arising from the great difficulty of obtaining the second and third folio volumes of Sermons, have occasioned the filling up of Vol. III. of this edition with the Devotions, to the interruption of the Sermons.

The Letters will be found valuable both from their intrinsic merit, and from their use in illustrating the life and times of their Author. This latter service is however considerably diminished, by many of them being, in the old edition, published without dates.

From the Poems I have pruned, some may be disposed to think, too unsparingly. It was my object to publish as many as might well consist with the other parts of the work which I was editing; and to avoid as much as possible the strange jumble of subjects and chronological arrangement, which appears in the old edition: where Hymns and Love-elegies, purity and licentiousness, the works of repentant age and unbridled youth, are recklessly placed in company. This misrepresentation (for such it is) of the genius of a great man I have endeavoured to rectify; and as the last class of Poems did not accord with the nature of the present work, I have omitted them altogether. I could wish that

the whole Poems were well edited, (the Satires especially would repay the labour,) but it seemed to me that the character of this book being theological, the Poems which were to be inserted should be of the same stamp.

The other works of Donne, not published here, are— 1. Pseudo-martyr; that those which are of the Roman religion in this kingdom, may and ought to take the oath of allegiance. 4to. 1610.

2. Biathanatos; a declaration of that paradox or thesis, that self-homicide is not so naturally sin, that it may never be otherwise. (On this, see Letter LVI., Vol. VI. p. 372.)

3. Essays in Divinity, before he entered into holy orders. 12mo. 1651.

4. Ignatius his Conclave; or his Inthronisation in a late Election in Hell; wherein many things are mingled by way of satyr; concerning the disposition of Jesuits; the creation of a new hell; the establishing of a church in the room. There is also added an

Apology for Jesuits. All dedicated to the two adversary angels, which are protectors of the papal consistory, and of the college of Sorbon. 12mo. 1653.

5. Paradoxes, Problems, Essays, Characters; to which is added a book of Epigrams, written in Latin, but translated into English, by J. Maine, D.D. 1652.

12mo.

The pleasing duty remains, of expressing my thanks to those who have encouraged and assisted me in preparing this work for the press. The first place among these is due to the Rev. J. T. Stainforth, of Camberwell, who, having in his possession the second and third folio