John Quarles › Hymnals

Quarles, John, son of Francis Quarles, was born in Essex in 1624, and was educated at Exeter College, Oxford. He bore arms within the garrison at Oxford on behalf of Charles I. and subsequently (it is said) he was raised to the rank of captain in the King's service. On the downfall of the King, Quarles retired to London, and devoted himself to literature for a livelihood. He died there during the great Plague, 1665. He published several works including (1) Jeremiah's Lamentations Paraphrased, with Divine Meditations, 1648; and (2) Divine Meditations upon Several Subjects whereunto is annexed God's Love to Man’s Unworthiness, with several Divine Ejaculations. London, 1655 (Wood's Athenae Oxon.). From the Ejaculation, Mr. Darling adapted two hymns for his Hymns for the Church of England. In the 1889 ed. these are:— “O King of kings, before Whose Throne" (Holy Trinity); and "O Thou Who sitt'st in heaven and seest" (Visitation of Sick).

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)