2007 a year, which he held then with one of greater value.

Situations where we can do the most good are preferable to all others, however great the emoluments. Dr. T. Gouge used often to say, with pleasure, that he had two livings which he could not exchange for the greatest in England; viz. Christ's Hospital, where he used to chatechise the poor children; and Wales, where he used to travel every year, and sometimes twice in the year, to spread knowledge, piety, and charity.

THE IGNORANT PRIEST.

THE following anecdote will afford us a striking instance of the ignorance that existed before the Reformation; it at the same time confirms the relation generally given of Archbishop Cranmer's forgiving spirit.

The archbishop's first wife, whom he married at Cambridge, lived at the Dolphin Inn, and he often resorting thither on that account, the popish party had raised a story, that he was ostler of that inn, and never had the benefit of a learned education. This idle story a Yorkshire priest had with great confidence asserted in an alehouse which he used to frequent, railing at the archbishop, and saying that he had no more learning than a goose. Some of the parish who had a respect for Cranmer's character, informed the Lord Cromwell of this, who immediately sent for the priest, and committed

him to the fleet prison. When he had been there nine or ten weeks, he sent a relation of his to the archbishop to beg his pardon, and humbly sue to him for a discharge. The archbishop instantly sent for him, and after a gentle reproof, asked the priest whether he knew him; to which he answered, No. The archbishop expostulated with him, why he should, then, make so free with his character. The priest excused himself by his being in drink. But this Cranmer told him was a double fault, and then let him know, that if he had a mind to try what a scholar he was, he should have liberty to oppose him in whatever science he pleased. The priest humbly asked his pardon, and confessed himself to be very ignorant, and to understand nothing but his mother tongue. "No doubt, then," said Cranmer, "you are well versed in the English Bible, and can answer any questions out of that. Pray tell me who was David's father." The priest stood still awhile to consider, but at last told the archbishop he could not recollect his name. "Tell me, then," said Cranmer, "who was Solomon's father?" The poor priest replied, that he had no skill in genealogies, and could not tell.-The archbishop then advised him to frequent alehouses less, and his study more; and admonished him, not to accuse others for want of learning till he was master of some himself; discharged him out of custody, and sent him home to his cure.

PRINTS.

Improper Prints in Books, &c.

ONE cannot but smile at the odd and curious representations given us of certain objects in some old books of devotion. The paintings of angels, devils, spirits, &c. must excite the risibility of any sensible man, and none but injudicious limners and sculptors could engage in such performances-But it is still more ridiculous to attempt any figures of the Deity. Instead of enlarging, it must contract our ideas of Him, who is without body, parts or passions. All attempts, also, to represent the Trinity by triangles, and a dove in the centre, &c., should be entirely left alone.

"I can easily understand and readily admire as a strong poetical figure," says Dr. Knox, "the touching of Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire; but I cannot admire the engraver's representation, in some Bibles, of an angel from heaven with a blacksmith's tongs, burning the poor prophet's lips with a live coal.

"The representation of Satan in many serious books is so ridiculous, that one would almost imagine the artist intended to laugh at the idea of such a being. Who can bear some prints of demoniacs, where the possessed are exhibited vomiting up little black devils with cloven feet and long tails? If artists thought such figures likely to excite or preserve devotion, they must have been as weak as their admirers.

"Few books have had a greater popularity than the works of Bishop Taylor: several of them are adorned with good plates by Faithorne, but disgraced by others of a ridiculous kind. The frontispiece to the Rules of Holy Dying cannot but excite mirth even in those who do not habitually sit in the seat of the scorner. On one side is the statue of a clergyman in his canonicals, with the inscription on the base Mercurius Christianus. In the clouds, opposite to him, is the figure of an old man with a flag in one hand and a crown in the other, in a sitting posture, intended to represent Jesus Christ. The reader will immediately see the absurdity of introducing Mercurius in the same picture with our Saviour. On the other side is represented, in a most childish manner, .hell and the devil. Here the figures are shockingly deformed; but they are calculated to strike terror into none but children, and those who labour under the weakest superstition."

There is a commentary on the Revelations, in which is a frontispiece containing an enormous gigantic picture of Jesus Christ. The artist has literally copied Rev. i, 14, &c. :-his head and his hairs are like a fleece of wool; for eyes he has flames of fire; his legs and feet are like pillars of brass and, that nothing should be wanting, he has in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth proceeds many waters and a sharp two edged sword.

The prints inserted in the Common Prayer Books are of a kind which none but the ignorant and the vulgar can admire. The cut enti

tled Jesus tempted by the Devil is almost as ludicrous as if it had come from Hogarth or Bunbury. The devil has a crown and sceptre, a modern coat, apparently a pair of boots, and from his rump hangs a tail resembling what is called a pig-tail!

In one of the ancient books on devotion, an angel is represented crowning the Virgin Mary, and God the Father himself assisting at the ceremony. In a book of Natural History, the Supreme Being is represented as reading on the seventh day, when he rested from all his works.

In the book that Featley published against the Baptists, there was a plate representative of the people against whom he wrote performing the ordinance of baptism. Ministers the administrators, and both men and women the receivers of baptism, are represented as stark naked in a river, and the ministers are thrusting the people's heads down forward into the water :-such a sight which had never been seen since the world began.

John Heywood wrote a treatise called the Spider and Fly." There are seventy-seven chapters in this work, at the beginning of each of which is the portrait of the author, either standing or sitting before a table with a book on it and a window near it, hung round with cobwebs, flies, and spiders.-What would the present age say of an author whose book should be so full of himself ?

Bishop Burnet tells us, that before the Refor mation it was usual in England to have pictures of the Trinity. God the Father was represent