been the chief cause of his illness, was "called to an account for it," his answer was, God forbid; I seek not revenge; I freely forgive him and the rest. The only uneasiness he endured, arose from the doubts which had been maliciously expressed with regard to his firm devotion to the Protestant church. "The rest of his time was occupied in contemplation of God and meditations upon the Holy Scriptures; especially upon Christ's sufferings, and what a benefit those have, that by faith could lay hold on him, and what virtue there was in the least drop of his precious blood; intermingling here and there many devout prayers and ejaculations, which continued with him as long as his speech; and after, as we could perceive by some imperfect expressions. At which time, a friend of his exhorting him to apply himself to finish his course here, and prepare himself for the world to come, he spake in Latin to this effect*:-O sweet Saviour of the world, let thy last words upon the cross be my last words in the world. Into thy hands, Lord, I commend my spirit; and what I cannot utter with my mouth, accept from my heart and soul: which words being uttered distinctly, to the understanding of his friend, he fell again into his former contemplations and prayers; and so quietly gave up his soul to God, the 8th day of September, 1644, after he had lived two and fifty years, and lieth buried in the parish church of St. Leonard's, in Foster Lane." Such was the delightful termination of an active and well-spent life. Though his death was an irreparable loss to his family, yet it was gain to him, who, in the words of his friend, Mr. Rogers, "could not live in a worse age, nor die in a better time." He was removed in mercy from *O dulcis Salvator Mundi, sint tua ultima verba in Cruce, mea ultima verba in Luce: "In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum. Et quæ ore meo fari non possint, ab animo et corde sint a te accepta." the evil to come. If he had lived, he would only have beheld the rapid gathering of that tempest, which he had so earnestly prayed might pass away; the decay of that religion of which he was a meek-hearted disciple; and the sufferings and persecutions of a Master whom he enthusiastically loved. The assertion of Pope that Quarles received a pension from Charles the First, requires confirmation*; but the monarch had a heart to feel, and a disposition to cherish the qualities he observed in the author of the Emblems. Who can regret, then, that the poet fell asleep, before the night came upon him! He was mourned by many friends, and his talents and virtues formed the theme of pens, "neither mean nor few." The verses to his memory, by James Duport, the accomplished Greek professor at Cambridge, ought to be particularly mentioned. They have all the graceful ease of his happiest manner: Quis serta cœlo jam dabit? aut pium Quis symbolorum voce pictâ In delineating his private life, we are happy to borrow again the pencil of his wife. "He was the husband of one wife, by whom he was the father of eighteen children, and how faithful and loving a husband and father he was, the joint tears of his widow and fatherless children will better express than my pen is able to do. In all his duties to God and man he was conscionable and orderly. He preferred God and religion to the first place in his thoughts, his King and country to the second, his family and studies he reserved to the last. As for God, he was frequent in *The hero William, and the martyr Charles, his devotions and prayers to him, and almost constant in reading or meditating on his holy word. * * * And for his family, his care was very great over that, even when his occasions caused his absence from it. And when he was at home, his exhortations to us, to continue in virtue and godly life, were so pious and frequent; his admonitions so grave and piercing; his reprehensions so mild and gentle; and (above all) his own example in every religious and moral duty, so constant and manifest, that his equal may be desired, but can hardly be met withal*." From the same affectionate memorialist we learn that he was addicted to no "notorious vice whatsoever;" that he was courteous and affable to all, and moderate and discreet in all his actions. His dislike to the tavern festivities of the day, probably tended to produce the antipathy which Mr. Gifford says subsisted between him and Ben Jonson. He was an unwearied student, being rarely absent from his study after three o'clock in the morning. The charm of his conversation was remembered by the bookseller Marriot, who said that it distilled pleasure, knowledge, and virtue, to all his acquaintance. In his religious creed he was a zealous son of the established church; and it was his dying request to his friends, that they would make it universally known, that as he was trained up and lived in the true protestant religion, so in that religion he died." In the latter part of his life he underwent many persecutions, and he seems to allude to his own sufferings in the Persecuted Man. "No sooner had I made a covenant with my God, but the world made a covenant against me, scandalled my name, slandered my actions, derided my simplicity, and despised my integrity. For my profession's sake I have been reproached, and the reproaches of the world have * Preface to the Shepherds' Oracles. fallen upon me; if I chastened my soul with fasting, it styled me with the name of hypocrite; if I reproved the vanity of the times, it derided me with the name of puritan." His Prayers and meditations form a lasting monument of his fervid piety. The following beautiful supplications cannot fail of being acceptable to all who can sympathize with the expression of unfeigned devotion: "Lord, if thy mercy exceeded not my misery, I could look for no compassion; and if thy grace transcended not my sin, I could expect for nothing but confusion. Oh, thou that madest me of nothing, renew me, that have made myself far less than nothing; revive those sparkles in my soul which lust hath quenched; cleanse thine image in me which my sin hath blurred; enlighten my understanding with thy truth; rectify my judgment with thy word; direct my will with thy spirit; strengthen my memory to retain good things; order my affections, that I may love thee above all things; increase my faith; encou→ rage my hope; quicken my charity; sweeten my thoughts with thy grace; season my words with thy spirit; sanctify my actions with thy wisdom; subdue the insolence of my rebellious flesh; restrain the fury of my unbridled passions; reform the frailty of my corrupted nature; incline my heart to desire what is good, and bless my endeavours that I may do what I desire. Give me a true knowledge of myself, and make me sensible of mine own infirmities; let not the sense of those mercies which I enjoy, blot out of my remembrance those miseries which I deserve, that I may be truly thankful for the one, and humbly penitent. for the other. In all my afflictions keep me from despair; in all my deliverances preserve me from ingratitude; that being truly quickened with the sense of thy goodness, and truly humbled by the sight of mine own weakness, I may be here exalted by the virtue of thy grace, and hereafter advanced to the kingdom of thy glory." "O God, without the sunshine of whose gracious eye, the creature sits in darkness and in the shadow of death; whose presence is the very life and true delight of those that love thee; cast down thine eyes of pity upon a lost sheep of Israel, which has wandered from thy fold into the desert of his own lusts. What dangers can I choose but meet, that have run myself out of thy protection? What sanctuary can secure me, that have left the covert of thy wings? What comfort can I expect, O God, that have forsaken thee, the God of comfort and consolation? Return thee, O great Shepherd of my soul, and with thy crook reduce me to thy fold; thou art my way, conduct me; thou art my light, direct me; thou art my life, quicken me. Disperse these clouds that stand betwixt thy angry face and my benighted soul; remove that cursed bar which my rebellion hath set betwixt thy deafened ear and my confused prayers, and let thy comfortable beams reflect upon me. Leave me not, O God, unto myself; O Lord, forsake me not too long, for in me dwells nothing but despair, and the terrors of Hell have taken hold of me. Remove this heart of stone, and give me, O good God, a heart of flesh, that it may be capable of thy mercies, and sensible of thy judgments; plant in my heart a fear of thy name, and deliver my soul from carnal security; order my affections according to thy will, that I may love what thou lovest, and hate what thou hatest; kindle my zeal with a coal from thine altar, and increase my faith by the assurance of thy love. O holy fire, that always burnest and never goest out, kindle me. O sacred light, that always shinest and art never dark, illuminate me. O sweet Jesus, let my soul always desire thee, and seek thee, and find thee, and sweetly rest in thee; be thou in all my thoughts, in all my words, in all my actions, that both my thoughts, my words, and my actions, being sanctified by thee here, I may be glorified by thee hereafter." *Lead back. |