but weak and illiterate fanatics. But their forte no doubt lay more in preaching and in practical work than in writing. Again, the stream of theological thought has to a great extent drifted into a different current from that in which it ran in their day, and this change may have prevented many good men from sympathising with them as they deserved. The Evangelicals of the last century represented one side, but only one side, of our Church's teaching. With the spirituality and fervency of her liturgy and the Gospel' character of all her formularies, they were far more in harmony than the so-called 'orthodox' of their day. But they did not, to say the least of it, bring into prominence what are now called, and what would have been called in the seventeenth century, the Catholic' features of the English Church. They simply regarded her as one of many Protestant' communions. Distinctive Church principles, in the technical sense of the term, formed no part of their teaching. Daily services, frequent communions, the due observance of her Fasts and Festivals, all that is implied in the terms 'the æstheticism and symbolism of worship,' found no place in their course. The consequence was, that while they formed a compact and influential body which still remained within the pale of the Church, they also revived very largely, though unintentionally, the Dissenting interest, which was at least in as drooping condition as the Church of England before the Evangelical school arose. But every English Churchman has reason to be deeply grateful to them for what they did, however much he may be of opinion that their work required supplementing by others no less earnest, but of a different tone of thought. J. H. O. CHAPTER III.1 SACRED POETRY. THE latter part of the seventeenth century had been singularly barren in sacred poetry, as compared with the preceding period. Milton died in 1674; Herrick the same year; Crashaw and Phineas Fletcher in 1650, the latter surviving by twenty-seven years his younger brother Giles, the no less. gifted author of 'Christ's Victory.' Drummond died in 1679; Sandys and Quarles in 1644; George Herbert in 1635; Dr. Donne in 1631; Sir John Davies in 1626. The great authors of the Elizabethan age were still writing under the reign of the first Stuart. There are passages of true religious value in Shakespeare, whose noblest productions almost all belong to the seventeenth century. Sir Walter Raleigh's hymns were written in that period," and Lord Bacon's Psalms.3 It would be easy to cite verses upon sacred subjects, well worthy of being preserved, from the dramatists Ben Jonson and Shirley, from the Puritans Withers and Andrew Marvel," This subject is treated mainly, but by no means exclusively, in relation to the Church of England. 2 A fine passage beginning 'Rise, O my soul' is quoted in Saunders, F., Evenings with the Sacred Poets, 223. 'Lord Bacon's 'Seven Paraphrases,' written at the close of his life, are of no great poetical value, but contain some noticeable lines, as 'I know that He my words will not despise ; Thanksgiving is to Him a sacrifice.'—Saunders, 226. In one place he cannot refrain from introducing, not however without some suggestive beauty, reference to a discovery in physical science, where, speaking of the glory of the Divine presence, he writes, 'Thence round about a silver veil doth fall Of chrystal light, mother of colours all.'-Qu. Rev. vol. 38, 29. For example, his 'Hymn to God the Father,' quoted in G. Macdonald's England's Antiphon, 153. ⚫ Saunders, 253. "Author of 'The Emigrant's Hymn,' Where the remote Bermudas ride In Ocean's bosom unespied.'-Spalding's Hist. of Eng. Literature, 300. from Sir Henry Wotton, Habington, Peter Heylyn, Jeremy Taylor,' Randolph Crossman,2 Sir Thomas Browne.3 Nor must the name of Cowley be omitted, if it were but for his verses upon that great subject which was soon to engross so much thought-the relations between Reason and Revelation: The Holy Book, like the eighth sphere, doth shine So numberless the stars, that to the eye It makes but all one galaxy. Yet Reason must assist too; for in seas So vast and dangerous as these, Our course by stars above we cannot know, But of all this race of poets Milton was the last survivor, and he, secluded by his blindness and by the political changes which had happened, had little or nothing in common with the outward world of Charles II.'s time. His 'soul was like a star and dwelt apart.' 5 Edmund Waller lived on to 1687, but he belonged to a much earlier generation; his earlier verses were, in fact, written within twenty years of Spenser's latest. Yet his last short poem, dictated 'when we for age could neither read nor write,' is worthy to be compared with anything that he had produced in his prime of life :- The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, Lets in new light through chinks that time had made : As they draw near to their eternal home, 1 ' Jeremy Taylor wrote several hymns, as that for Christmas day, beginning, 'Arise, my soul, and come away, Put on thy best array, Lest if thou longer stay, Thou lose some minutes of so blest a day.' Author of the well-known hymn 'Jerusalem on high My Song and City is.' C. Rogers' Lyra Britannica. E. Palmer's Book of Praise, &c. See a hymn quoted in his Religio Medici, bearing many resemblances to that of Ken. He used it daily in his evening prayer, as his 'dormitive,' or laudanum, whereby to close his eyes in peace. Relig. Med. 153. 'Reason in Divine Matters,' stanza 5, Miscellanies, B. Poets, v. 235. It somewhat resembles the often quoted opening passage in Dryden's Religio Laici. Wordsworth's xivth sonnet to National Liberty. Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, There were, however, a few writers of sacred poetry belonging more properly to the period which followed the Restoration. Lord Roscommon, the author of a fine paraphrase of the 118th Psalm, died in 1684, with words upon his lips taken from his own hymn on the Day of Judgment :— My God, my Father, and my Friend, Do not forsake me at the end.2 A noble vein of poetry lingered, where it might be expected, among those thoughtful and high-minded writers, the Oxford and Cambridge Platonists. Henry More, who died in 1687, published his poems forty years earlier. But Norris and Vaughan, his brothers in the same philosophy, both belong to the latter end of the century. Norris may, in fact, be spoken of as belonging in some degree to the period which these chapters deal with, for he lived till 1711. Henry Vaughan, who died in 1695, wrote verses which deserve to be placed in the very foremost ranks of devotional poetry. Some of his lines, if somewhat rugged in their metre, are yet exquisite. He is speaking of the spirits of just men made perfect : I see them walking in an air of glory, Whose light doth trample on my days My days, which are at best but dull and hoary, O holy hope and high humility, High as the heavens above! These are your walks, and you have showed them me To kindle my cold love. Dear, beauteous Death! the jewel of the just ! Shining nowhere but in the dark! What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust, Could man outlook that mark. John Mason, Rector of Water Stratford, a man of deep piety, published his 'Songs of Praise' in 1683. They have 1 Concluding verses on his 'Divine Poems,' Anderson's B. Poets, v. 506. 2 From his life in British Poets, vi. 422. passed through twenty editions, and some of his hymns find a place in most modern collections of sacred poetry. He died in 1694. Richard Baxter (1615–91) wrote a paraphrase of the Psalms, and much verse besides. But his fame as a sacred poet rests chiefly upon one hymn: 'Lord, it belongs not to my care, Whether I live or die.' Dryden's noble version of the Veni Creator is dated 1687. 2 'The Revolution,' remarks Hallam, did nothing for poetry. William's reign, always excepting Dryden, is our nadir in works of imagination.' It must have seemed to many as if English poetry had almost died with the death of Dryden in 1701. Yet the very first year of the eighteenth century was distinguished by a very notable accession to the treasures of sacred verse. Bishop Ken's Morning, Evening, and Midnight Hymns were first published in 1700, in the seventh edition of his Manual of Prayer for Winchester Scholars. He hoped they would say these hymns the first thing on waking, and the last on going to sleep, remembering that it is a good thing to tell of the lovingkindness of the Lord early in the morning, and of His truth in the night season. His midnight hymn, beginning— Lord, now my sleep does me forsake, verses better known, perhaps, to this generation than they had been for a century and a half before—was to be stored up in memory, with the 130th and 139th Psalms, for wakeful nights. But have a care, Philotheus,' he added, 'you fix not your mind too much, for fear of hindering your sleep.' The good bishop himself used daily, immediately upon rising, to sing to his lute his Morning Hymn. He was accustomed, it appears, to adapt the words to his own tunes, for he was skilled in music, and his compositions were grave and solemn.5 The melody, however, to which the three hymns were originally printed, and which suffered in the course of time corruptions |