Judgment And Mercy For Afflicted Souls; Or, Meditations, Soliloquies, And Prayers Or, Meditations, Soliloquies, and Prayers

FOR AFFLICTED SOULS OR, Meditations, Soliloquies, and Prayers, A NEW - EDITION WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL INTP. ODUCTIma 1 By REGINALRE WOTaFI, -- PREFACE. THE custom which now begins to prevail, of re-printing the works of . those ancient writers who are distinguished for brilliancy of fancy, or purity of sentiment, has induced the Editor of this volume to submit to the decision of modern times, the Meditations, Soliloquies, and Prayers of FRANC Q I U S A RLES an author, who was once generally admired for the variety and sweetness of his com positions, . The ZiJe and literay character of Quarles being fully discussed in the a following pages, it remains here only to observe, that the former was without reproach, and that the latter was of sufficient celebrity to place him among the bqt writers of his age. The plan of the ensuing work is hiefly this -The author divides his book into Two Parts in the First, he introduces various im noral characters, indulging themselves in studied corn- Lendations under the most plausible modes of reasoning of their particular habits and pursuits but, immediately ifterwards, certain - prohibitory Texts r of Scripture occur to them-which produces contrition and remorse these. a ... re followed by a Solilogzl . y, o . n the heil ndtlsness of their sins, and by a Prayer I tht thky may be forgiven. In the Seco zd Part, the characters are not absolutely immoral, but pea to be overwhelmed by their miseries and afflictions. After some reflcctions on their wretched state, a Soliloquy and Prayer ensue the former of which, as in the first part, reproves, and the latter administers cons lation. v It has been principally from a con viction of the good whichmay ensue I11 the second part, there is probably less genius than in the first although the style is freer from vulgarisms and eccentricities of expression but we are told by Quarless widow, that this second part was taken from the author by a sly hand, and presently printed without his kno i ledge so that, as in like cases it always happens, it came forth much unsuitable to the authors mind, both in the form and matter of it. See URSUL Q A UA RLESS Address to the Courteous Reader, prefised to the Second . . Part, post. p. 173. a to all classes of society, from the perusal of these pages, that the Editor has been solicitous to publish them in their present improved form. In this edition, the original text of Quarles is faithfully adhered to except in about ten or twelve places, where some verbal corrections became n e cessary, froin the palpable corruption of the copy. The orthogrrrph3 is modernized in justification of which if j stificatio b n e requisite I avail myself of the remarks of Mr. Burnett, in the Preface to his Specimens of English Prose Writers . F. To pre vent any repellent effect to the general reader, says he, it was thought advisable to adopt the modern orthography. The ancient spelling, indeed, was quite unsettled, and in some degree arbitrary the same author often writing the same word in two or three different ways. To many readers this might have been a source of obscurity. See p xi. J Except in the Life and Peath of Qarles, by his Widow. f A very elegant and judicious publication, in 3 vols. Svo. 7807 forming a companion to Mr. Elliss popular Spec cimeqs of the Early English Poets. BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. Cc A Short Relation of the LIFE and DEATH of Mr. FRANC QI U S A RLES, by URSULA QUARLES, his sorrotv full lfidos. Prefixed to the Edition of Solomons Recantation, 4to. 1645...