upon the Scriptures.  He was also a poet and a satirist, and excelled in this field.  His Satires—­Virgidemiarium—­were published at the early age of twenty-three; but they are highly praised by the critics, who rank him also, for eloquence and learning, with Jeremy Taylor.  He suffered for his attachment to the king’s cause, was driven from his see, and spent the last portion of his life in retirement and poverty.  He died in 1656.

CHILLINGWORTH.—­The next in chronological order is William Chillingworth, who was born in 1602, and is principally known as the champion of Protestantism against Rome and Roman innovations.  While a student at Oxford, he had been won over to the Roman Catholic Church by John Perse, a famous Jesuit; and he went at once to pursue his studies in the Jesuit college at Douay.  He was so notable for his acuteness and industry, that every effort was made to bring him back.  Archbishop Laud, his god-father, was able to convince him of his errors, and in two months he returned to England.  A short time after this he left the Roman Catholics, and became tenfold more a Protestant than before.  He entered into controversies with his former friends the Jesuits, and in answer to one of their treatises entitled, Mercy and Truth, or Charity maintained by the Roman Catholics, he wrote his most famous work, The Religion of Protestants a Safe Way to Salvation.  Chillingworth was a warm adherent of Charles I.; and was captured by the parliamentary forces in 1643.  He died the next year.  His double change of faith gave him the full range of the controversial field; and, in addition to this knowledge, the clearness of his language and the perspicuity of his logic gave great effect to his writings.  Tillotson calls him “the glory of this age and nation.”

TAYLOR.—­One of the greatest names in the annals of the English Church and of English literature is that of Jeremy Taylor.  He was the son of a barber, and was born at Cambridge in 1613.  A remarkably clever youth, he was educated at Cambridge, and soon owed his preferment to his talents, eloquence, and learning.  An adherent of the king, he was appointed chaplain in the royal army, and was several times imprisoned.  When the king’s cause went down, and during the protectorate of Cromwell, he retired to Wales, where he kept a school, and was also chaplain to the Earl of Carberry.  The vicissitudes of fortune compelled him to leave for a while this retreat, and he became a teacher in Ireland.  The restoration of Charles II. gave him rest and preferment:  he was made Bishop of Down and Connor.  Taylor is now principally known for his learned, quaint, and eloquent discourses, which are still read.  A man of liberal feelings and opinions, he wrote on “The liberty of prophesying, showing the unreasonableness of prescribing to other men’s faith, and the iniquity of persecuting different opinions:”  the title itself being a very liberal discourse.  He upholds the Ritual in An Apology for fixed and set Forms of Worship.  In this he considers the divine precepts to be contained within narrow limits, and that beyond this everything is a matter of dispute, so that we cannot unconditionally condemn the opinions of others.