The poetry continues to display the deep spiritual tinge of the Elizabethan age. How beautiful is the sentiment of the following lines from Francis Quarles, published in 1642!

"Even as the needle, that directs the hour,

Touch'd with the loadstone, by the secret power
Of hidden nature, points upon the Pole;
Even so the wavering powers of my soul,
Touch'd by the virtue of Thy Spirit, flee
From what is earth, and point alone to Thee.
When I have faith to hold Thee by the hand,
I walk securely, and methinks I stand
More firm than Atlas."

The early Puritans, doubtless, in domestic life carried too far their profound convictions of the paramount importance of manifested religion at all times and in all places. Yet the result in many instances was the production of characters and actions of the highest value. Oliver Heywood, who was born in 1612, tells us that at a very early age, his mother was accustomed to instruct him "in the deep points of divinity-the fall in Adam, the corruption of our nature, subjection to the curse, redemption by Christ, the necessity of regeneration, the immortality and worth of the soul, the weight and concernment of eternity." She used the catechism of the famous Puritan schoolmaster, Mr. John Ball; set him to pray in the family, bade him attend the frequent religious conferences held at his father's house, took him to hear the most celebrated preachers in the country round,

* Life of Oliver Heywood, p. 31.

required him to bring home notes of their discourses, and gave him to read Luther and Calvin, with the works of Perkins, Preston, and Sibbes. His mother was noted for ability as well as piety, and was an oracle concerning the time and place of week-day sermons and religious intelligence. At the age of fourteen, young Heywood began to receive the communion in the parish church, and joined a small society of young men who were accustomed to meet together once a fortnight for religious conversation and prayer. It is not to be wondered at that this training, when accompanied by the blessing of God (which it was calculated to bring), resulted in the formation of manly Christian character.

Personal religion had also reached the high places of the land. The piety of Lord Falkland, of Lord Brooke, and several of the conspicuous men of the day, was of the most thorough kind. They lived, acted, and spoke for God. True, the domestic exhibitions of family religion appear to us to have been unduly strict and severe. They, doubtless, were so; but it was an error which shows the high estimation in which piety was then held. In the memoir of Lettice, Lady Falkland, the details of her ordinary routine of daily life are as follows:-"First, she spent some hours every day in her private devotions and meditations; and these were called, I remember, by her family, her busy hours. Then her maids came into her chamber early every morning, and ordinarily she passed about an howr with them, in praying, and catechizing, and instructing them. To these secret and private praiers, the publick morning and evening praiers of the

Church, before dinner and supper, and another form, together with reading Scriptures and singing psalms, before bed-time, were daily and constantly added. Neither were these holy offices appropriate to her menial servants; others came freely to joyn with them, and her oratory was as open to the neighbors as her Hall was.'

The representative men of the best religious life of the age are, however, not only or chiefly to be discovered on the surface of history, but in obscure records, cherished by a few, who hold in reverence memories wholly slighted by the general public. The name of Henry Jessey will serve as an instance. He was a Yorkshireman, born in 1601, educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where, amidst considerable attainments in human knowledge, he also attained the more excellent divine knowledge of Christ, as his Saviour and friend. After living for nine years with Mr. Gurward, in Suffolk, as domestic chaplain, he obtained a living in the year 1633, but in the following year was ejected for neglecting the rubric and removing a crucifix. He then became chaplain to Sir Matthew Birnton, who brought him to London, where he took charge of a congregation of Protestant dissenters, originally formed in 1616 by Mr. Henry Jacob. Several of the congregation becoming Baptists, Mr. Jessey, after two or three years' attention to the subject, and conference with his ministerial brethren, also espoused and publicly avowed the doctrine of baptism of believers only, and

* "A Letter containing many remarkable Passages in the most holy Life and Death of the late Lady Lettice, Viscountess Falkland." 1648.

that by immersion. "But," says his biographer, "notwithstanding his differing from his brethren in this or any other point, he maintained the same Christian love and charity to all saints as before, not only as to a friendly conversation, but also in respect of church communion. He had always some of the Pædo-baptist persuasion, and blamed those who made their particular opinion about baptism the boundary of church communion. He published the reasons of his opinion in this case; and when he travelled through the north and west parts of England to visit the churches, he made it his principal business to excite them to love and union among themselves, notwithstanding their differing from one another in some opinions; and was also the principal person that set up, and preserved for some time, a meeting at London of some eminent men of each denomination, in order to maintain peace and union among those Christians that differed not fundamentally; and this catholic spirit procured him the love and esteem of the good men of all parties."*

He was famous, too, as a student of the Hebrew (at a time when this study was rare), of the Greek, Syriac, and Chaldaic; for his efforts for the Jews, and for foreigners in general; for his own charities, and his public urgency in favour of benevolence. On the Restoration, he was ejected from a living which he had held under the Commonwealth; was thrown into prison (in spite of his goodness) for his nonconformity, and there died at the age of sixty-three, in the year 1663, beloved and

* Crosby's "History of English Baptists," vol. i., p. 312.

lamented by all, as a man of rare learning, piety, moderation, diligence in doing good, and catholicity of spirit. He was an accomplished, devout Christian gentleman.

An amusing incident in the history of the PilgrimFathers serves to illustrate the general religious habit of the men whom evil legislation was now banishing from our shores. John Fisk, a pious graduate of Cambridge, escaped in disguise with another Puritan preacher, and embarked for New England. When the ship had passed the Land's End, they "made themselves known, and entertained the passengers with two sermons every day, besides other devotional exercises. Indeed, the whole voyage was so much devoted to the exercises of religion, that when one of the passengers was accused of diverting himself with the hook and line on the Lord's day, he protested, saying, "I do not know which is the Lord's day. I think every day is a Sabbath day; for you do nothing but preach and pray all the week long."*

In November, 1640, a respectable prebendary of Durham, Mr. Peter Smart, dared to preach against the ritualistic ceremonies then being engrafted on the cathedral service at Durham by Dr. Cosins. He was persecuted, tried, defended himself on the ground of the Prayer-book, Articles, and Homilies,-but all in vain: he was heavily fined and imprisoned, until released by the Long Parliament. We get a glimpse of the family piety from the following letter, written to him by his wife whilst he was in prison :

* Brook: from Mather's "History of New England."