Conspicuous among the sacred poets of the first two Stuart reigns in England was George Wither. His _Hymnes and Songs of the Church_ appeared in 1622-1623, under a patent of King James I., by which they were declared "worthy and profitable to be inserted, in convenient manner and due place, into every English Psalm-book to metre." His _Hallelujah_ (in which some of the former _Hymnes and Songs_ were repeated) followed in 1641. Some of the _Hymnes and Songs_ were set to music by Orlando Gibbons, and those in both books were written to be sung, though there is no evidence that the author contemplated the use of any of them in churches. They included hymns for every day in the week (founded, as those contributed nearly a century afterwards by Charles Coffin to the Parisian Breviary also were, upon the successive works of the days of creation); hymns for all the church seasons and festivals, including saints' days; hymns for various public occasions; and hymns of prayer, meditation and instruction, for all sorts and conditions of men, under a great variety of circumstances--being at once a "Christian Year" and a manual of practical piety. Many of them rise to a very high point of excellence,--particularly the "general invitation to praise God" ("Come, O come, in pious lays"), with which _Hallelujah_ opens; the thanksgivings for peace and for victory, the Coronation Hymn, a Christmas, an Epiphany, and an Easter Hymn, and one for St Bartholomew's day (Hymns 1, 74, 75, and 84 in part i., and 26, 29, 36 and 54 in part ii. of _Hallelujah_). Cosin. John Cosin, afterwards bishop of Durham, published in 1627 a volume of "Private Devotions," for the canonical hours and other occasions. In this there are seven or eight hymns of considerable merit,--among them a very good version of the Ambrosian "Jam lucis orto sidere," and the shorter version of the "Veni Creator," which was introduced after the Restoration into the consecration and ordination services of the Church of England. Milton. The hymns of Milton (on the Nativity, Passion, Circumcision and "at a Solemn Music"), written about 1629, in his early manhood, were probably not intended for singing; but they are odes full of characteristic beauty and power. Jeremy Taylor. During the Commonwealth, in 1654, Jeremy Taylor published at the end of his _Golden Grove_, twenty-one hymns, described by himself as "celebrating the mysteries and chief festivals of the year, according to the manner of the ancient church, fitted to the fancy and devotion of the younger and pious persons, apt for memory, and to be joined, to their other prayers." Of these, his accomplished editor, Bishop Heber, justly says:--