THE

PROSE WORKS

OF

JOHN MILTON;

WITH

A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

INTERSPERSED WITH

TRANSLATIONS AND CRITICAL REMARKS,

BY

CHARLES SYMMONS, D.D.

OF JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD.

IN SEVEN VOLUMES.

VOL. IV.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY LUKE HANSARD, NEAR LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,

FOR J. JOHNSON; NICHOLS AND SON; F. AND C. RIVINGTON;
OTRIDGE AND SON; T. PAYNE; OGILVY AND SON; CUTHELL
AND MARTIN; VERNOR AND HOOD; R. LEA; J. WALKER;
CLARKE AND SON; J. STOCKDALE; LACKINGTON AND CO.;
LONGMAN AND CO.; CADELL AND DAVIES; J. HARDING;
R. H. EVANS; J. MAWMAN; J. HATCHARD; AND MATHEW 3

AND LEIGH.

CONTENTS

OF THE

FOURTH VOLUME.

Page

THE History of Britain, that Part especially now

called England; from the first Traditional Be-

ginning, continued to the Norman Conquest.

Collected out of the ancientest and best Authors

thereof. Published from a Copy corrected by

the Author himself.......

1

Of true Religion, Heresy, Schism, Toleration, and

what best means may be used against the Growth

of Popery. Printed in the Year 1673........259

A brief History of Moscovia, and of other less

known Countries lying Eastward of Russia, as

far as Cathay, gathered from the Writings of

several Eye-witnesses.....

A Declaration, or Letters Patents for the Election

of John the Third, King of Poland, elected on

the 22d of May, Anno Dom. 1674, containing the

Reasons of this Election, the great Virtues and

Merits of the said serene Elect, his eminent

Services in War, especially in his last great

Victory against the Turks and Tartars; whereof

many Particulars are here related, not pub-

lished before.....

Letter of State to most of the Sovereign Princes

and Republics of Europe, during the Adminis-

271

314

323

tration of the Commonwealth, and the Protec-

tors Oliver and Richard Cromwell.....

Letters written in the Name of the Parliament. ibid.

Letters written in the Name of Oliver the Pro-

tector...

371

THE

HISTORY OF BRITAIN,

That Part especially, now called ENGLAND;

From the First Traditional Beginning, continued to the

NORMAN CONQUEST.

Collected out of the ancienteft and beft Authors thereof.

Published from a Copy corrected by the Author himself.

THE FIRST BOOK.

THE beginning of nations, thofe excepted of whom facred books have fpoken, is to this day unknown, Nor only the beginning, but the deeds alfo of many fucceeding ages, yea, periods of ages, either wholly unknown, or obfcured and blemished with fables. Whether it were that the use of letters came in long after, or were it the violence of barbarous inundations, or they themselves at certain revolutions of time, fatally decaying, and degenerating into floth and ignorance; whereby the monuments of more ancient civility have been fome destroyed, fome loft. Perhaps disesteem and contempt of the public affairs then prefent, as not worth recording, might partly be in caufe. Certainly ofttimes we see that wife men, and of beft ability, have forborn to write the acts of their own days, while they beheld with a juft loathing and difdain, not only how unworthy, how perverfe, how corrupt, but often how ignoble, how petty, how below all history the persons and their actions were; who, either by fortune or fome rude election, VOL. IV.

B

had