Calvanistic to suit the Arminians, and too moderate in his Calvinism to suit the hot Calvinists. That, in spite of his independent position, his works were admired, is partly due to the obvious earnestness and sincerity of the man, but partly to the excellence of his matter and style. He was to a great extent a self-taught man, and his writings bear traces of this; he was not a trained theologian, and can hardly be ranked with the giants of that golden age of theology; but his works are read where theirs are not.

J. H. OVERTON.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

THE infinite goodness of God should increase repentance, and win the soul to a more resolute, cheerful service of the Lord. O what a heart is that which can offend, and wilfully offend, so good a God! This is the odiousness of sin, that it is an abuse of an Infinite Good. This is the most heinous, damning aggravation of it, that Infinite Goodness could not prevail with wretched souls against the empty, flattering world, but that they suffered a dream and shadow to weigh down Infinite Goodness in their esteem. And is it possible for worse than this to be found in man? He that had rather the sun were out of the firmament than a hair were taken off his head, were unworthy to see the light of the sun. And surely he that will turn away from God himself, to enjoy the pleasures of his flesh, is unworthy to enjoy the Lord.

It is bad enough that Augustine in one of his epistles saith of sottish worldly men, that "they had rather there were two stars fewer in the firmament than one cow fewer in their pastures, or one tree fewer in their woods or grounds"; but it is ten thousand times a greater evil that every wicked man is guilty of, that will rather forsake the living God, and lose his part in Infinite Goodness, than he will let go his filthy and unprofitable sins. sinners, as you love your souls, "despise not the riches of the goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering of the Lord; but know that his goodness should lead you to repentance" (Rom. ii. 4). Would you spit at the sun? Would you revile the stars? Would you curse the holy angels? If not, O do not ten thousandfold worse, by your wilful sinning against the Infinite Goodness itself.

But for you Christians, that have seen the amiableness of the Lord, and tasted of his perfect goodness, let this be enough to melt your hearts, that ever you have wilfully sinned against him : O what a good did you contemn in the days of your unregeneracy,

and in the hour of your sin ! Be not so ungrateful and disingenuous as to do so again. Remember, whenever a temptation comes, that it would entice you from the Infinite Good. Ask the tempter, man or devil, whether he hath more than an Infinite Good to offer you: and whether he can outbid the Lord for your affection?

And now for the time that is before you, how cheerfully should you address yourselves unto his service! and how delightfully should you follow it on from day to day! What manner of persons should the servants of this God be, that are called to nothing but what is good! How good a Master! how good a work! and how good company, encouragements and helps! and how good an end! All is good, because it is the infinite good, that we serve and seek. And shall we be loitering, unprofitable (From The Divine Life.)

THE HEART IN HEAVEN

CONSIDER, a heart in heaven is the highest excellency of your spirits here, and the noblest part of your Christian disposition : as there is not only a difference between men and beasts, but also among men, between the noble and the base; so there is not only a common excellency, whereby a Christian differs from the world, but also a peculiar nobleness of spirit, whereby the more excellent differ from the rest and this lies especially in a higher and more heavenly frame of spirit. Only man, of all inferior creatures, is made with a face directed heavenward; but other creatures have their faces to the earth. As the noblest of creatures, so the noblest of Christians are they that are set most direct for heaven. As Saul is called a choice and goodly man, higher by the head than all the company; so is he the most choice and goodly Christian, whose head and heart is thus the highest (1 Sam. iv. 2, and x. 23, 24). Men of noble birth and spirits do mind high and great affairs, and not the smaller things of low poverty. Their discourse is of councils and matters of state, of the government of the commonwealth, and public things: and not of the countryman's petty employments. Oh to hear such a heavenly saint, who hath fetched a journey into heaven by

faith, and hath been raised up to God in his contemplations, and is newly come down from the views of Christ, what discoveries will he make of those superior regions! What ravishing expressions drop from his lips! How high and sacred is his discourse, Enough to make the ignorant world astonished, and perhaps say! "Much study hath made them mad" (Acts xxvi. 24); and enough to convince an understanding hearer that they have seen the Lord and to make one say, "No man could speak such words as these, except he had been with God." This, this is the noble Christian; as Bucholcer's hearers concluded, when he had preached his last sermon, being carried between two into the church, because of his weakness, and there most admirably discoursed of the blessedness of souls departed this life, “Cæteros concionatores a Bucholcero semper omnes, illo autem die etiam ipsum a sese superatum," that Bucholcer did ever excel other preachers, but that day he excelled himself; so may I conclude of the heavenly Christian, he ever excelleth the rest of men, but when he is nearest heaven he excelleth himself. As those are the most famous mountains that are highest; and those the fairest trees that are tallest; and those the most glorious pyramids and buildings whose tops do reach nearest to heaven; so is he the choicest Christian, whose heart is most frequently and delightfully there. If a man have lived near the king, or have travelled to see the sultan of Persia, or the great Turk, he will make this a matter of boasting, and thinks himself one step higher than his private neighbours, that live at home. What shall we then judge of him that daily travels as far as heaven, and there hath seen the King of Kings? That hath frequent admittance into the Divine presence, and feasteth his soul upon the tree of life? For my part, I value this man before the ablest, the richest, and the most learned in the world.

(From The Saints Everlasting Rest.)

ABRAHAM COWLEY

[Born in London in 1618; educated at Westminster School and at Trinity College, Cambridge; ejected from his University in 1643-4, when he took up his residence at Oxford. He followed Queen Henrietta Maria to France in 1646, and served the royal family in various ways. On his return to England in 1656 he was arrested by mistake, but released on bail, under which he remained till the Restoration. Disappointed of the Mastership of the Savoy, he was at last enabled, by a favourable lease of royal lands, to retire into country life, and settled, first at Barn Elms, and in 1665 at Porch House, Chertsey, where he died on July 28, 1667.]

COWLEY'S last request to his literary executor was to excise from his works any word or phrase that might give the least offence to religion or good manners. This sincere expression of the piety which was in him—for, notwithstanding the florid exuberance of his pen, Cowley was as a writer, whether of poetry or of prose, quite free from affectation-should be cited at the head of any tribute, however slight, to his literary genius. Fortune plunged him in a long series of dubious activities from the day when he was driven from the gates of Trinity to that when he found refuge at last in his

. . gentle, cool retreat

From all th' immoderate heat,

In which this frantic world doth burn and sweat,"

and he drank almost to the dregs the cup of tarnished gold, which is filled with the miseria curialium. Yet he thought nobly of life and its purposes, and, above all, of that pursuit of letters to which, as a boy, he had been attracted by the copy of Spenser that lay in his mother's parlour, and to which he remained true through all the vicissitudes of his career. Thus, while the decline of his poetic reputation is one which no revival awaitsfor it is only out of the decay of another Elizabethan age that