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still stand and I hope that I shall persevere faithful unto him, even unto death; and that, as a recompence, he will give me the crown of life. Whatever hazard I run in writing to you, I will not forbear to do it, as often as God shall give me opportunity. It is the only happiness which is left us in our sorrow ful separation to be able to confer with, and to comfort, one another. But I shall confine myself to write to you alone for the future."-" If the letters which I shall write to you are intercepted, and imputed to me as a crime, it will be a crime which I shall always take pleasure and delight in confessing, before all who shall question me about it. I do not think that any person of a just and equitable spirit can think ill of, or blame, a husband, for endeavouring to comfort his wife, in such sorrowful conjunctures as those to which it has pleased God to reduce us. This, my dear partner, is my resolution upon that point. Notwithstanding, let us both do all things with a Christian prudence; so that we may give no handle against us to those who only wait for an opportunity; and as to the rest, let us rely upon the providence of God, the singular favours and mercies of which we daily experience. Let us offer up our bodies and souls to Him, as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which is our reasonable service. This is what I daily study to do. I can truly assure you, that there pass but few nights in which I do not water my couch with my tears. I do not say this, my dear wife, to afflict you: on the contrary, I imagine, that this news will afford you matter of joy, and a holy occasion to join with me in blessing God for it. For these tears are not the effects of a worldly sorrow, which bringeth forth nothing but death. But they proceed from the grace of God; some of them from that godly sorrow which bringeth forth repentance to salvation, not to be repented of; others from the joy which I feel when I consider. with admiration,

how great are the mercies and favours which God confers upon you all, and upon myself. I likewise reflect with extreme joy and satisfaction upon the sacrifice which you have made to God of all the worldly property and comforts which he bestowed upon us. You might have enjoyed these, if your heart had been inclined that way. But you have made for yourself a treasure of them in heaven, where rust and thieves spoil not. You have, like Mary, chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from you. I assure you, my love, you could not have made a choice more to my mind. I praise God, with all the powers and faculties of my soul, who hath given me a wife truly Christian, and who will, in my absence, do her endeavour to teach our children to be Christians."

The only release that he had from the chain for the next three months was for the purpose of being taken before the Bishop of Marseilles to enter upon conferences and disputes with the clergy; the sole result of which was generally to make his oppression the heavier: still his confidence in the loving kindness of God was undiminished; and we should feel amazed at this exercise of vigorous faith, did we not know the exhaustless spring whence he derived renewed supplies as often as he was weary and about to faint. The following passage will disclose what was this exuberant source.

"When I rise in the morning, after having presented my petitions to God, I read six, or seven, or eight chapters of holy Scripture; and make such reflections and observations on them as I am able. I draw from this Divine source all the consolations which I stand in need of. God himself doth most plentifully furnish me with them; and, with his precious balm of Gilead, he gently anoints and supples all the wounds which my sufferings may make in my heart."

When the time approached of making up the second embarkation for America, a chain of 150 prisoners arrived at Marseilles, thirty-three

having died on their way. De Marolles, however, formed no part of the shipment; but this was not an advantage. He had entertained hopes that the civility with which the Bishop of Marseilles treated him would have occasioned an alleviation of his sufferings, or at least that nothing more grievous would happen to him. But six weeks after the conferences, he was taken from the galley, and shut up in a kind of dungeon prepared purposely for him in the citadel of Marseilles. His virtues had so powerfully attracted the public attention, that the court at Versailles determined, if possible, to triumph over his patience. So strict was his imprisonment, that he could not write to his wife for seven months, and then only in the name of another person. The little light that reached his solitary abode came in chiefly by the chimney. The king allowed him five sous a-day for his subsistence, and upon that he lived. He was committed to the custody of an officer who, the better to secure him, placed a sentinel day and night at the outer gate of his chamber, and another at the top of the chimney. The officer himself dishonestly intercepted a part of his meagre allowance, and reduced him to great extremities. In this state of destitution did this ⚫ eminently meek and humble Christian struggle with unrepining patience for six years against hunger, nakedness, cold, and darkness. Yet it was his joy that he was counted worthy to suffer for his Redeemer's name. He says on one occasion, in a note without date, and written with a trembling hand to one of his companions in suffering: "I am sorry that they have given themselves the trouble to endeavour to procure a pension for me.

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to them that they trouble themselves no more about it: I am contented to live on bread and water."

At length he contrived to send a communication to his wife. He calls her, as indeed he might, his widow. The letter is full of tenderness, and of unshaken trust in the

support of Divine grace. He says, that he thought he could not have lived three months in such a place as was his then abode; but he adds, "It will be five years, on the eleventh of next February, that God has preserved me in it." He notices also the kindness of the almoner of the citadel, who was permitted to visit him, and wished to bring him some of his own linen; which De Marolles would not allow, but was permitted through him to purchase some articles of clothing with his own money. But the most valuable alleviation of his condition was a lamp full of oil which at this time was sent him every day, and which enabled him for six and sometimes eight hours to console himself with the holy Scriptures, besides preventing his striking his head against the walls of his dungeon, which in the darkness, from vertigo and weakness, he had frequently done. Such was the gratuitously barbarous conduct of the officer who had him in charge, that he sometimes kept his food from him till very late at night, and for three months together refused to have his linen washed. This cruel neglect greatly aggravated the sorrows of his imprisonment; and to complete the climax of misery, he saw no reason to hope that his afflictions would be permitted to terminate so long as his shattered frame should be able to bear up against them. He remarks to a fellow-sufferer in the same cause; "You speak just to my mind, my dear brother, when you say, that we alone shall be the persons to whom the king will not extend his clemency. We are brought upon the stage, in order to strike a terror into the whole kingdom; and upon us must fall that vengeance which the king makes those feel, who do not acquiesce and submit to his orders. But if we have had the misfortune to disobey our great monarch, let this be our comfort, that we did it out of an indispensible necessity, to which we were reduced, of disobeying him. We have preferred the obedience which

we owe to the Divine Majesty, to the mandates of a mortal prince. This is the laudable crime for which we suffer so many miseries. Let us always fix our eyes upon the glorious recompences which God reserves in heaven for us, for that very crime for which the god of this world will perhaps never forgive us. Let us wait the will of the Lord, and be always faithful to him." Among the aggravations of his imprisonment, were the solitude and perpetual darkness (for the indulgence of a lamp seems to have been only temporary) in which he spent his days. He had at first rejoiced in being taken from the galley and brought to his dungeon, because his ears were no longer offended with the horrid and blasphemous sounds with which the galley continually echoed. He had also the liberty of singing the praises of God. "I could likewise," he says, "prostrate myself before him as often as I pleased." He further lost his uneasy chain, which his weakness indeed no longer allowed him to bear. But the natural overpowering effects of long-continued solitude and per petual darkness, were at length felt by him with extreme acuteness, though still with perfect resignation and filial confidence in God.

"The solitude and perpetual darkness in which I spent my days, presented my straitened soul with such frightful and terrifying ideas, as made very fatal impressions on my mind. It was filled with false and illusory imaginations, which often transported it into delirium and idle fancies, which lasted some times for the space of two hours. My prayers were no remedy against this evil. God was pleased it should continue for some months. I was plunged into a deep abyss of affliction. When I considered that, together with this affliction of spirit, I could procure scarcely any bodily rest, I concluded that I was in the high road to distraction, and that I should never escape falling into that state. I incessantly implored

the succours of my God. I begged of him, that he would never suffer my enemies to triumph over me, and my sufferings, in so sorrowful a manner. At length, after much prayer and many sighs and tears, the God of my deliverance heard my petitions, and, after so many tempests, sent a perfect calm and serenity. He dissipated all those illusions which gave me so much pain." He adds:

"The duration of so great a temptation was, in my opinion, the proper time for the old serpent to endeavour to cast me into rebellion and infidelity. But God always kept him in so profound a silence, that he never once offered to infest me with any of his pernicious counsels; and I never felt the least inclination to revolt. Ever since these sorrowful days God has always filled my heart with joy. I possess my soul in patience. He makes the days of my affliction speedily to pass away. I have no sooner begun them but I find myself at the end of them. With the bread and water of affliction with which he tries me, he affords me continually most delicious repasts."

The united effects of imprisonment, hunger, cold, and persecution, had now utterly enfeebled the body of this exemplary and faithful Christian, whose mind they could not, to the last moment, change. About two months before his death his eyes, which had for some time been extremely weak and inflamed, quite failed him. Through extreme weakness he fell against the wall of his dungeon, and made several wounds on his head; and from that time he languished till his death. His persecutors, by increasing a little his scanty allowance of bread and water, and adding somewhat to the quality of his food, tried, but in vain, to prolong his sufferings. Several of the priests came in this last stage to see him, and endeavoured to effect a change in his sentiments; but the same grace which had supported him in his bonds preserved him faith

ful unto death. He heard their arguments and invectives with calm ness, not returning railing for railing. He blessed his enemies to the last. At length, on the 17th of June 1692, he fell a victim to the malice of his persecutors, and, from the pains of a lingering martyrdom, ascended to the bosom of that Saviour who invites all who share his sufferings to participate in the throne of his glory. The Papists caused him to be buried by six Turks among the Turks; this being their custom with such as died faithful to their Saviour.

And now, in concluding this abstract of the history and sufferings of M. de Marolles, some of our readers may be disposed to inquire our reasons for laying before them so melancholy a scene. If those reasons have not been already sufficiently apparent from what has preceded, we may add the following; that such narratives as these display the power of the grace of God and the true character of religious principle, and serve to fortify and prepare the mind of the Christian for the emergencies of trial. It must be quite clear to any reflecting mind, that nothing but supernatural aid could sustain the soul of man in the midst of sufferings like those which have been described. The torments of the stake, terrible as they are, require but the effort of a few hours: and there are many adventitious circumstances in such a scene which are not without effect in contributing to sustain the soul; but the horrors of a dungeon required the unintermitted exertion of months and years, with a perpetual struggle against the depressing tendency of solitary and comfortless confinement. What could inspire an unrepining spirit in the midst of all this scene of trial, and even a good-will towards those who inflicted it, but the supporting grace of God and the comforts of the Holy Spirit ?

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character of that selfish, bigoted, and proselyting spirit which is interwoven in the very principles of Popery. We are not speaking of individual members of that communion, but of the body. We acknowledge a few bright exceptions; but they do not disprove the general statement. And what should be the lesson which we ought to learn from the exhibition of this unsaintly spirit? Not certainly to "go and do likewise,"to oppose persecution to persecution, to be bitter and virulent, because our opponents may be so; but to exhibit to them a brighter and holier example, in meekness to instruct them that op pose themselves,-to fight manfully and without compromise, but not with the weapons of worldly policy, but with "the sword of the Spirit;" not to call down fire to consume them, but to endeavour with a gentler flame to melt their hearts and consume their dross; to pray for them; to endeavour by every Christian means to gain them over to pureness of doctrine and holiness of life; and in all our controversies with them to think more of essentials than of circumstantials, and to strive rather to discover common ground on which we can commence friendly discussions in the cause of truth, than to exasperate the evil by plunging at once into the hottest ranks of hopeless polemics. We never wish to see the members of our Protestant church imitating either the spirit or the practice of their opponents, described with such exquisite point of good-humoured irony by Jeremy Taylor, where he says: "Because the doctors of the Romish Church met with opponents at all hands, they proceeded to a more vigorous way of arguing: they armed legions against their adpersaries; they confuted at one time, in the town of Beziers, sixty thou sand persons; and, in one battle, disputed so prosperously and acutely that they killed about ten thousand men that were sacramentarias, ¡And this Bellarmine gives as an instance:

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of the works of the Church. This way of arguing was used in almost all the countries of Christendom, till, by crusadoes, massacres, bat tles, burnings, and the constant carnificia and butchery of the inquisition, (which is the main proof of the Papacy, and does more than Tu es Petrus), they prevailed far and near, and men durst not oppose the evidence on which they fought!"-Jeremy Taylor might, perhaps, have strengthened his allusion to Bellarmine by contrasting his exterminating zeal towards Protestants, with his tender mercies towards the loathsome vermin which he suffered to luxuriate unmolested upon his person, alleging that they could enjoy happiness only in this life, while he anticipated an eternity of happiness in the life to come! But thus it is that men of the tenderest feelings in other matters, whether Protestants or Papists, will often forget all their charity, and even the common dictates of humanity, when seized with the mania of a dictatorial, intolerant, and persecuting spirit.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. AMONG the many episcopal charges, injunctions, and similar documents, which have been at different times "set forth," for the regulation of the conduct of our established clergy, I know not that any manual of this nature can be found in many respects more admirable, than the following monition of Archbishop Sancroft to the bishops of his province, suggesting various heads of exhortation for their respective clergy. The reasons why the subject of Popery occupies so conspicuous a place in this document, will be evident, if we call to mind the period in which it was drawn up; which was in July 1688, soon after the prosecution of the seven prelates, at a time when Popery reared its citadel in the royal palace itself, and dispersed its emissaries throughout every parish of CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 272.

the kingdom. I am not, however; altogether pleased with the spirit of one or two clauses, which seem to urge the clergy to their duties, rather from policy, or from hatred to Popery, than from love to God, or for the souls of their people. The duties alluded to in the eighth and tenth injunctions, would be equally duties independently of the particular grounds on which they are there inculcated. It is but justice, however, to add, that the Archbishop had already specified the high motive of "the solemn vows and obligations made in ordination to God and the church;" and he presumes throughout upon the clergy being sincerely actuated by zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of mankind. In most documents of this kind there is a defectiveness of allusion to that highest of all motives, "the love of Christ," which "constraineth" every faithful minister to "spend and be spent" in his service, far more than any exhortations built only upon the basis of its being a matter of principle and duty, irrespective of the feelings and affections of the soul. With these limitations, the following document is well worthy of the frequent perusal of the clergy: and it is highly pleasing to find it issuing from the pen of such a man as Archbishop Sancroft, to whom many writers and readers would hardly give credit for such excellent sentiments.

A. B.

Some Heads of Things to be more fully insisted upon by the Bishops, in their Addresses to the Clergy and People of their respective Dioceses.

I. That the clergy often read over the forms of their ordination; and seriously consider what solemn vows and professions they made therein to God and his church, together with the several oaths and subscriptions they have taken and made upon divers occasions. II. That, in compliance with 3 Q

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