could not have yielded without a delicate and deliberate exercise of the fancy; and he unites the point and polish of later times, with many of the genial and warm tints of the elder muse." It is deeply to be regretted that he should have employed such talents upon subjects generally so trivial, when he might have shone in the higher walks of poetry, and built for himself a wide-spread fame.

PLEASURE.

Bewitching syren! golden rottenness!
Thou hast with cunning artifice displayed
Th' enamelled outside, and the honied verge
Of the fair cup, where deadly poison lurks.
Within, a thousand sorrows dance the round;
And, like a shell, pain circles thee without.
Grief is the shadow waiting on thy steps,
Which, as thy joys 'gin towards their west decline,
Doth to a giant's spreading form extend
Thy dwarfish stature. Thou thyself art pain,
Greedy, intense desire; and the keen edge
Of thy fierce appetite oft strangles thee,
And cuts thy slender thread; but still the terror
And apprehension of thy hasty end

Mingles with gall thy most refined sweets.
Yet thy Circean charms transform the world.
Captains that have resisted war and death,
Nations that over fortune have triumphed,
Are by thy magic made effeminate;
Empires, that know no limits but the poles,
Have in thy wanton lap melted away.
Thou wert the author of the first excess

That drew this reformation on the gods;

Canst thou, then, dream those powers that from heaven
Banished the effect, will there enthrone the cause?
To thy voluptuous den, fly, witch from hence;
There dwell, for ever drowned in brutish sense.

GEORGE SANDYS, 1587-1643.

THIS eminent sacred poet, the son of Archbishop Sandys, was born in 1587, and in his eleventh year he entered St. Mary's Hall, Oxford. He spent many years in travelling, after which he returned to England, and died 1643.

"The principal work of Sandys is a translation of the Psalms of David, incomparably the most poetical in the English language, but yet, at the present day, scarcely known."

THE LAMENTATION OF DAVID OVER SAUL AND JONATHAN.

Thy beauty, Israel, is fled,

Sunk to the dead;

How are the valiant fallen! the slain

Thy mountains stain.

Oh! let it not in Gath be known,

Nor in the streets of Ashkelon.

Lest that sad story should excite

Their dire delight!

Lest in the torrent of our woe,

Their pleasure flow:

Lest their triumphant daughters ring
Their cymbals, and their Pæans sing.

Yon hills of Gilboa, never may

You offerings pay;

No morning dew, nor fruitful showers,
Clothe you with flowers:

Saul and his arms there made a spoil,
As if untouched with sacred oil.

The bow of noble Jonathan

Great battles won;

His arrows on the mighty fed,
With slaughter red.

Saul never raised his arm in vain,
His sword still glutted with the slain.

How lovely! O how pleasant! when
They lived with men!

Than eagles swifter; stronger far
Than lions are:

Whom love in life so strongly tied,
The stroke of death could not divide.

Sad Israel's daughters, weep for Saul;
Lament his fall,

Who fed you with the earth's increase, And crowned with peace;

With robes of Tyrian purple decked,
And gems which sparkling light reflect.

How are thy worthies by the sword
Of war devoured!

O Jonathan! the better part

Of my torn heart!

The savage rocks have drunk thy blood:
My brother! O how kind! how good!

Thy love was great; O never more
To man, man bore!

No woman when most passionate,
Loved at that rate!

How are the mighty fallen in fight!

They and their glory, set in night!

WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH, 1602—1644.

ONE of the most distinguished divines of the Church of England, and one of the ablest opposers of the doctrines of the Church of Rome, is WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH. He was born in Oxford in 1602, and studied there. Soon after taking his degree, a Jesuit, by the name of Fisher, argued him into a belief of the doctrines of Popery, and he consequently went to the Jesuits' college at Douay, and there studied for some time. But his friends induced him to return to Oxford, where, after additional study of the points of difference between the Papists and Protestants, he was convinced of his error, and in his great work, soon after published, entitled "The Religion of Protestants a Safe Way to Salvation," showed himself to be one of the most able defenders of the Protestant church that England ever produced. In it, he maintains that the Scriptures are the only rule of faith and practice, and the only rule to which appeals ought to be made in theological controversies. These points he proves conclusively, and the work has ever been considered as a model of perspicuous reasoning.

Locke, in one of his works, after setting forth the great importance of perspicuity in the art of speaking, says, "There must also be right reason. ing, without which perspicuity serves but to expose the speaker. And for attaining this end, I should propose the constant reading of Chillingworth, who, by his example, will both teach perspicuity and the way of right reasoning, better than any work I know." And Gibbon, the historian, alluding to our author, on his recantation from popery, says, 'His new creed was built on the principle, that the Bible is our sole judge, and private reason our sole interpreter, and he most ably maintains this position in the 'Religion of a Protestant,' a book which is still esteemed the most solid defence of the Reformation."

THE NECESSITY OF AN UNADULTERATED SCRIPTURE.

He that would usurp an absolute lordship and tyranny over any people, need not put himself to the trouble and difficulty of abrogating and disannulling the laws, made to maintain the common liberty; for he may frustrate their intent, and compass his own designs as well, if he can get the power and authority to interpret them as he pleases, and add to them what he pleases, and to have his interpretations and additions stand for laws: if he can rule his people by his laws, and his laws by his lawyers. So the church of Rome, to establish her tyranny over men's consciences, needed not either to abolish or corrupt the Holy Scriptures, the pillars and supporters of christian liberty: but the more expedite way, and therefore more likely to be successful, was, to gain the opinion and esteem of the public and authorized interpreter of them, and the authority of adding to

them what doctrine she pleased, under the title of traditions or definitions. The matter being once thus ordered, and the Holy Scriptures being made in effect not your directors and judges (no farther than you please), but your servants and instruments, always pressed and in readiness to advance your designs, and disabled wholly with minds so qualified to prejudice or impeach them; it is safe for you to put a crown on their head, and a reed in their hands, and to bow before them, and cry, "Hail, King of the Jews!" to pretend a great deal of esteem, and respect, and reverence to them, as here you do. But to little purpose is verbal reverence without entire submission, and sincere obedience; and, as our Saviour said of some, so the scripture, could it speak, I believe would say to you, "Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not that which I command you?" Cast away the vain and arrogant pretence of infallibility, which makes your errors incurable. Leave picturing God, and worshipping him by pictures. "Teach not for doctrine the commandments of men." Debar not the laity of the testament of Christ's blood. Let your public prayers and psalms, and hymns, be in such language as is for the edification of the assistants. Take not from the clergy that liberty of marriage which Christ hath left them. Do not impose upon men that humility of worshipping angels which St. Paul condemns. Teach no more proper sacrifices of Christ but one. Acknowledge them that die in Christ to be blessed, and "to rest from their labours." Acknowledge the sacrament after consecration, to be bread and wine, as well as Christ's body and blood. Let not the weapons of your warfare be carnal, such as are massacres, treasons, persecutions, and, in a word, all means either violent or fraudulent: these and other things, which the scripture commands you, do, and then we shall willingly give you such testimony as you deserve; but till you do so, to talk of estimation, respect and reverence to the scripture, is nothing else but talk.

SCRIPTURE ALONE THE RULE OF FAITH.

This presumptuous imposing of the senses of men upon the words of God, the special senses of men upon the general words of God, and laying them upon men's consciences together, under the equal penalty of death and damnation; this vain conceit that we can speak of the things of God, better than in the words of God: this deifying our own interpretations, and tyrannous enforcing them upon others this restraining of the