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Paul condemns. Teach no more proper sacrifices of Christ but Acknowledge them that die in Christ to be blessed, and "to rest from their labors." Acknowledge the sacrament after consecration to be bread and wine, as well as Christ's body and blood. Let not the weapons of your warfare be carnal, such as are massacres, treasons, persecutions, and, in a word, all means either violent or fraudulent: these and other things, which the scripture commands you, do, and then we shall willingly give you such testimony as you deserve; but till you do so, to talk of estimation, respect, and reverence to the scripture, is nothing else but talk.

SCRIPTURE ALONE THE RULE OF FAITH.

This presumptuous imposing of the senses of men upon the words of God, the special senses of men upon the general words of God, and laying them upon men's consciences together, under the equal penalty of death and damnation; this vain conceit that we can speak of the things of God better than in the words of God: this deifying our own interpretations, and tyrannous enforc ing them upon others: this restraining of the word of God from that latitude and generality, and the understandings of men from that liberty, wherein Christ and the apostles left them, is, and hath been, the only fountain of all the schisms of the church, and that which makes them immortal; the common incendiary of Christendom, and that which (as I said before) tears into pieces, not the coat, but the bowels and members of Christ. Take away these walls of separation, and all will quickly be one. Take away this persecuting, burning, cursing, damning of men for not subscribing to the words of men, as the words of God; require of Christians only to believe Christ, and to call no man master but him only; let those leave claiming infallibility that have no title to it, and let them that in their words disclaim it, disclaim it likewise in their actions; in a word, take away tyranny, which is the devil's instrument to support errors, and superstitions, and impieties, in the several parts of the world, which could not otherwise long withstand the power of truth; I say, take away tyranny, and restore Christians to their just and full liberty of captivating their understanding to scripture only, and as rivers, when they have a free passage, run all to the ocean, so it may well be hoped, by God's blessing, that universal liberty, thus moderated, may quickly reduce Christendom to truth and unity.

THE SIN OF DUELLING.

We are so far from seeking that honor which is of God, from endeavoring to attain unto, or so much as countenancing such virtues, which God hath often professed that he will exalt and

glorify, such as humility, and patiently bearing of injuries, that we place our honor and reputation in the contrary; that is counted noble and generous in the world's opinion, which is odious and abominable in the sight of God. If thy brother offend or injure thee, forgive him, saith Christ; if he proceed, forgive him: what until seven times? Ay, until seventy times seven times. But how is this doctrine received now in the world? What counsel would men, and those none of the worst sort, give thee in such a case? How would the soberest, discreetest, well-bred Christians advise thee? Why thus: If thy brother or thy neighbor have offered thee an injury, or affront, forgive him? by no means; of all things in the world take heed of that: thou art utterly undone in thy reputation then, if thou dost forgive him. What is to be done then? Why, let not thy heart rest, let all other business and employment be laid aside, till thou hast his blood. What! a man's blood for an injurious passionate speech, for a disdainful look! Nay, this is not all: that thou mayest gain amongst men the reputation of a discreet well-tempered murderer, be sure thou killest him not in passion, when thy blood is hot and boiling with the provocation, but proceed with as much temper and settledness of reason, with as much discretion and preparedness, as thou wouldst to the communion: after some several days' meditation, invite him, mildly and affably, into some retired place; and there let it be put to the trial, whether thy life or his must answer the injury.

On most horrible Christianity! That it should be a most sure settled way for a man to run into danger and disgrace with the world, if he shall dare to perform a commandment of Christ's, which is as necessary to be observed by him, if he have any hope of attaining heaven, as meat and drink is for the sustaining of his life! That ever it should enter into the heart of a Christian, to walk so exactly and curiously contrary to the ways of God; that whereas he every day and hour sees himself contemned and despised by thee, who art his servant, his creature, upon whom he might (without any possible imputation of unrighteousness) pour down the phials of his fierce wrath and indignation; yet He, notwithstanding, is patient and long-suffering towards thee, hoping that his long-suffering may lead thee to repentance, and earnestly desiring and soliciting thee by his ministers to be reconciled unto him! Yet, that thou, for all this, for a blow in anger, it may be, for a word, or less, shouldst take upon thee to send his soul, or thine, or, it may be, both, clogged and pressed with all your sins unrepented of, (for thou canst not be so wild as to think thou canst repent of thy sins, and yet resolve upon such a business,) to expect your sentence before the judgment-seat of God; wilfully and irrecoverably to deprive yourselves of all those blessed means which God had contrived for your salvation, the

power of his word, the efficacy and virtue of his sacraments, all which you shall utterly exclude yourselves from, and leave your selves in such a state, that it shall not be in God's power to do you any good!1

Sermon on the text, "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God."

FRANCIS QUARLES. 1592-1644.

FRANCIS QUARLES was born at Stewards, near Romford, Essex, in 1592. He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, whence he went to Lincoln's Inn, where he studied," says his widow, "the laws of England, not so much out of desire to benefit himself thereby, as his friends and neighbors, and to compose suits and differences between them." Subsequently he went over to Ireland, and became secretary to Archbishop Usher. On the breaking out of the rebellion there, in 1641, he fled to England for safety, and died three years after.

"There is not," says Montgomery, "in English literature a name more wronged than that of Quarles; wronged, too, by those who ought best to have discerned, and most generously acknowledged his merits in contradistinction to his defects." True, his writings are occasionally defaced by vulgarisms and deformed by quaint conceits, but his beauties abundantly atone for his defects; the latter being comparatively few, while his works generally are characterized by great learning, lively fancy, and profound piety. "He too often, no doubt," says Headley, "mistook the enthusiasm of devotion for the inspiration of fancy. To mix the waters of Jordan and Helicon in the same cup was reserved for the hand of Milton; and for him, and him only, to find the bays of Mount Olivet equally verdant with those of Parnassus. Yet, as the effusions of a real poetical mind, however thwarted by untowardness of subject, will seldom be rendered totally abortive, we find in Quarles original imagery, striking sentiment, fertility of expression, and happy combinations; with a compression of style that merits the observation of writers of verse."

His chief poetical works are his "Emblems," "Divine Poems," and "Job Militant, with Meditations divine and moral." His "Emblems" consist of a set of quaint pictorial designs, referring to moral and religious ideas, and each elucidated by appropriate verses.

O THAT THOU WOULDST HIDE ME IN THE GRAVE, THAT THOU WOULDST
KEEP ME IN SECRET UNTIL THY WRATH BE PAST.

Ah! whither shall I fly? what path untrod
Shall I seek out to scape the flaming rod

Of my offended, of my angry God?

1 "Will you intrust life to MURDERERS, and liberty to DESPOTS? Will you constitute those legislators, who despise you, and despise equal laws, and wage war with the eternal principles of Justice? Had the duellist destroyed your neighbor, had your own father been killed by the man who solicits your suffrage; had your son, laid low by his hand, been brought to your door pale in death and weltering in blood, would you then think the crime a small one? Would you honor with your conf dence, and elevate to power by your VOTE, the guilty monster? And what would you think of your neighbors, if, regardless of your agony, they should reward him? And yet, such scenes of unutterable anguish are multiplied every year. Every year the duellist is cutting down the neighbor of somebody," &c. Read-an admirable sermon entitled "Remedy for Duelling," by Rev. Lyman Beecher, D. D., delivered shortly after Alexander Hamilton was murdered by Aaron Burr.

Where shall I sojourn? what kind sea will hide
My head from thunder? where shall l'abide,
Until his flames be quench'dor laid aside?

What if my feet should take their hasty flight,
And seek protection in the shades of night?
Alas! no shades can blind the God of light.
What if my soul should take the wings of day,
And find some desert; if she springs away,
The wings of Vengeance clip as fast as they.

1

What if some solid rock should entertain
My frighted soul? can solid rocks restrain
The stroke of Justice and not cleave in twain?

Nor sea, nor shade, nor shield, nor rock, nor cave,
Nor silent deserts, nor the sullen grave,
What flame-eyed Fury means to smite, can save.
'Tis vain to flee; till gentle Mercy show
Her better eye, the farther off we go,
The swing of Justice deals the mightier blow.
Th' ingenuous child, corrected, doth not fly
His angry mother's hand, but clings more nigh,
And quenches with his tears her flaming eye.
Great God! there is no safety here below;
Thou art my fortress, thou that seem'st my foe;
'Tis thou, that strik'st the stroke, must guard the blow.

THE WORLD.

She's empty: hark! she sounds: there's nothing there But noise to fill thy ear;

Thy vain inquiry can at length but find

A blast of murmuring wind:

It is a cask that seems as full as fair,
But merely tunn'd with air.

Fond youth, go build thy hopes on better grounds;
The soul that vainly founds

Her joys upon this world, but feeds on empty sounds.

She's empty: hark! she sounds: there's nothing in't;
The spark-engendering flint

Shall sooner melt, and hardest raunce' shall first
Dissolve and quench thy thirst,

Ere this false world shall still thy stormy breast
With smooth-faced calms of rest.

Thou mayst as well expect meridian light

From shades of black-mouth'd night,
As in this empty world to find a full delight.

She's empty: hark! she sounds: 'tis void and vast;
What if some flattering blast

Of flatuous honor should perchance be there,
And whisper in thine ear?

1 A dry crust.

It is but wind, and blows but where it list,

And vanisheth like mist.

Poor honor earth can give! What generous mind
Would be so base to bind

Her heaven-bred soul, a slave to serve a blast of wind?
She's empty: hark! she sounds: 'tis but a ball
For fools to play withal;

The painted film but of a stronger bubble,
That's lined with silken trouble.

It is a world whose work and recreation
Is vanity and vexation:

A hag, repair'd with vice-complexion'd paint,
A quest-house of complaint.

It is a saint, a fiend; worse fiend when most a saint.
She's empty: hark! she sounds: 'tis vain and void.
What's here to be enjoy'd

But grief and sickness, and large bills of sorrow,
Drawn now and cross'd to-morrow?

Or, what are men but puffs of dying breath,
Revived with living death?

Fond youth, O build thy hopes on surer grounds
Than what dull flesh propounds:

Trust not this hollow world; she's empty: hark! she sounds

MERCY TEMPERING JUSTICE.

Had not the milder hand of Mercy broke
The furious violence of that fatal stroke
Offended Justice struck, we had been quite
Lost in the shadows of eternal night.
Thy mercy, Lord, is like the morning sun,
Whose beams undo what sable night hath done;
Or like a stream, the current of whose course,
Restrain'd awhile, runs with a swifter force.
Oh! let me glow beneath those sacred beams,
And after, bathe me in those silver streams;
To Thee alone my sorrows shall appeal:

Hath earth a wound too hard for heaven to heal?

Though in his day Quarles was mostly known as a poet, he was also the author of a few prose works, the principal of which is the "Enchiridion,' containing Institutions divine, contemplative, practical, moral, ethical, economical, political." Of this, Headley remarks, "had this little piece been written at Athens or Rome, its author would have been classed with the wise men of his country." The following are some specimens of it:

If thou be ambitious of honor, and yet fearful of the canker of honor, envy, so behave thyself, that opinion may be satisfied in this, that thou seekest merit, and not fame; and that thou attributest thy preferment rather to Providence than thy own virtue. Honor is a due debt to the deserver; and who ever envied the

1 Compounded of sv (en), "in," and yup (cheir), "the hand:"-something held "in the hand," a "mannal.' Read an article on this treatise in the Retrospective Review, ix. 358.

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