[boo]

OK… here is my perception of it… it may be wrong, but this was how I understood the text… I found some parts a little too difficult to understand.

PERCHANCE he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that.
The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all.

In the olden days, when the bell tolled, it was to announce a death… or nearing a death, or something… Donne is saying, “Maybe the guy for whom this bell tolls is so ill, he doesn’t realise the bell is tolling for him, and signalling his death. And maybe I think I am feeling better than I actually am, and those who have seen me know actually how ill I am, and have made the bell toll for me (i.e. signalling my death), and I don’t know that. The church is Catholic, universal, and so are all the church’s actions… everything the church does ‘belongs’ to everyone.”

When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member.

“When the church baptizes a child, that action concerns me too, because that child who is being baptized, I am also a part of – connected to that body which is my head too, and ingrated into that body whereof I am a member”

And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice;

“And when the church buries a man, that action concerns me too: all mankind is the same/universal/that sort of meaning… of one author, and is one volume… i.e. there are no different authors, we (mankind) have been penned down by only one person, and there are no different volumes that this author has written, it is only one book… one volume… and when one man dies, it is not as though a chapter of the book has been torn out (relating to earlier metaphor of how all of mankind has been penned down by one author in one volume), but it is instead translated into another language… literally, I perceive it as: when a man dies, he does not just fade out of the equation, but instead has an afterlife of sorts… which is better than the current life on Earth… translated into a better language…”

and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice;

and he says “every chapter must be so translated”, which I perceived as: everyone must die, and go on to this other world, this afterlife (be it heaven, whatever. Whatever your perception of afterlife is, I guess), we must all get “translated” into this better language&