Evening Prayer

"Laurent Drelincourt [(1626-1681)], pastor of the Église Réformée in Niort and author of the Sonnets Chrétiens (first edition 1677) was the last major French Calvinist poet to be published before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 scattered the Huguenots to the four corners of the earth. His collection of 160 sonnets was immediately and lastingly popular." So says, Jane McKee, "A Passion for the Scriptures: The Biblical Sonnets of Laurent Drelincourt," in Graham Gargett, ed., Heroism and Passion in Literature: Studies in Honour of Moya Longstaffe, p. 67. The son of Charles Drelincourt (1595-1669), French Huguenot divine, Laurent's poetry, while well-regarded among men of letters and men of faith, has only slightly been translated into English. At my request, one of his sonnets (as well as Drelincourt's associated footnotes) has been translated for this blog by the Rev. Thomas G. Reid, Jr., Assistant Professor, Librarian and Registrar at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, PA, with his wife also kindly assisting in the translation. The source text is derived from Sonnets chrétiens sur divers sujets (1766 ed.), p. 133:

Evening Prayer

Indeed, concerning work, your Fatherly goodnesses
cause the Light to reign over our earthly sojourn.
And, by your holy laws, the night comes, in its turn,
to bring rest, under the shadow of its wings.

But, when black sleep must cover my eyelids, 5
open upon me, my God, the eyes of Your love,
dismiss my sins, be my star and my day,
and let your holy angels be my faithful protectors.

The day, constantly swallowed up by the night,
Incessantly instructs me about the end of my life, 10
and I must, day and night, accept it in holiness.

May death, for me, not be anything but a sweet sleep,
where I, my soul between your arms, and my body in the dust,
await the reviving of the eternal morning.

5. “Sleep is the state between life and death” (Aristotle).
7. “By sin, we are shadows, and sin rings in our souls at night, which keeps us from seeing God,” St. Augustine says.
12. “Pagans call sleep the brother of death. And ancient Christians term death ‘sleep,’ in the peace of God and His Christ."
14. “Death is the night, and the resurrection will be the morning” (St. Augustine).

Memento Mori

Charles Drelincourt, The Christian's Defence Against the Fears of Death, pp. 59-60:

And let the most learned Philosophers learn, That the soundest Philosophy is the Meditation of Death.

In short, Whatever be our Employment, Condition, or Age, let us lift up our Minds and Hands unto GOD, to speak to him in the Language of the Prophet David; Lord, let me know my end, and the number of my days, that I may know how long I am to live. Or of Moses, So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto Wisdom.

A Prayer and Meditation on our Mortality.

O My God and Heavenly Father, since 'tis thy Pleasure, that I should be mortal, and that my Body should return to the Dust; Grant me Grace to be always mindful of my frail Condition, the Variety of Seasons, the Unconstancy of the World, and Alterations I meet with, as Memento's of my last Change and Departure. Let my Infirmities and frequent Distempers be looked upon as so many Messengers sent to summon and warn me that I must shortly leave this Tabernacle. Let the Bed I rest on call to my mind, that when all the Business of my Life shall be finished, I must lie down and rest in a Bed of Dust. Let the Garments that I cast off at Night, the Sleep that benumbs my Senses, the Tombs of my Predecessors, Forefathers and Friends, refresh in me the Thoughts of my Departure to my last Home. Gracious GOD, give me Grace so often to look upon Death and the Grave, that I may be acquainted with them, and that they may not fright or terrify, but comfort me; for tho' I know I am born to die, I know also this, that Death shall introduce me into the Presence of my GOD, the only Author of Life and Happiness, to live for ever with Him in Bliss. Amen.

Puritan Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe, English writer and jack-of-all trades, is known primarily today for being the author Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders and A Journal of the Plague Year, among other literary works. Students of church history and/or literary history may be interested to learn that he was a Puritan, or Dissenter, and that his life and writings intersected with many other Puritans.

He was born into a Nonconformist Presbyterian family and remained a Presbyterian throughout his life. His Presbyterian convictions permeate the whole of his body of literary works.

He was taught as a young man by Puritan Charles Morton, head of an academy for Dissenters at Newington (later vice-President of Harvard University), who was among the signatories of the 1673 Puritan Preface to the Scottish Metrical Psalter.

Defoe wrote the preface to Baptist Dissenter Thomas Delaune's Plea for the Nonconformists. Delaune served time at Newgate Prison where he and, as Defoe notes, his fellow-prisoner, William Jenkyn, noted Puritan minister and biblical expositor, died. Jenkyn was also a signer of the 1673 Puritan Preface to the Scottish Metrical Psalter.

Defoe's lifelong friend was the Puritan Timothy Cruso who, like Defoe, wrote religious guide books. It is believed that he named the protagonist in Robinson Crusoe after him.

He was the author of Memoirs of the Church of Scotland, which is in large measure a tribute to the Protestant martyrs and Scottish Covenanters who suffered religious persecution by the British Crown and Anglican Church.

Anonymously, he wrote The Shortest Way With Dissenters, a masterpiece of satire calling for the Anglican authorities to deal harshly with Dissenters and in so doing making a laughingstock of them. Ironically, he was arrested and pilloried for this, and then served time at the same aforementioned Newgate Prison.

Charles Drelincourt, French Huguenot, wrote Consolations de l'âme fidèle contre les frayeurs de la mort (Christians Defense against the Fears of Death). Defoe later wrote A True Relation of the Apparition of Mrs Veal, who came from the other world to recommend the perusal of Drelincourt on death, it is said, for the express purpose of promoting the sale of an English translation of the Consolations.

There was a bit of controversy between Defoe and Presbyterian Puritan John Howe over the subject of Occasional Conformity, Defoe's tract against the practice of requiring a measure of religious conformity to the Anglican Church on the part of officeholders. The two men addressed the issue from different angles and it was a lamentable controversy.

Defoe is buried at Bunhill Fields, the Dissenters' Cemetery, where other noted Puritans such as John Owen and John Bunyan, are likewise interred.