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in the pamphlets before us, he strikes a two-handed blow at that system of "force" and “hire,” of intolerance and patronage, in matters of religion, out of which have arisen nearly all the convulsions of modern Europe. Both the works are written with beautiful simplicity and earnestness. The divine right and the political expediency of tithes are examined and refuted at great length, and with amazing learning and ingenuity. The pith and marrow of the argument, the strength and nerve of the language, will be found to contain all that is necessary, and all that might have been expected. Let it be remembered that he interrupted his four great works-his Poem, his History, his Latin Thesaurus, and his Theological Treatise to write these two manuals. We particularly invite the immediate attention of our countrymen to the last of the two tracts. "In matters of religion," says our author, "he is learnedest who is plainest. The brevity I use, not exceeding a small manual, will not therefore I suppose be thought the less considerable, unless with them perhaps who think that great books only can determine great matters." Truth must triumph. We enjoy toleration, as it is insultingly styled; but we are yet to witness the utter subversion of intolerance, by the severance of the church from the state. Richard Cromwell soon abdicated his brief authority. For near two years after Cromwell's death, the government of England underwent various shapes, and every month almost produced a new scheme. The current of popular opinion ran strongly towards monarchy. The protestations of Monk, indeed, and the existence of the Long Parliament, in which there were few royalists and near fifty or sixty republicans, might support the faint hopes of the commonwealth-men. But Milton, as we find from his " Letter to a Friend concerning the Ruptures of the Commonwealth," dated Oct. 20, 1659, expresses his indignation at the outrages of the army, and his gloomy apprehensions for the future. Soon after, he addressed a letter to General Monk, entitled, “The present Means and brief Delineation of a free Commonwealth." Both these letters are very short, and hardly occupy two pages of this edition. A few months afterwards, he addressed General Monk again, in a more masterly production," The ready and easy Way to establish a free Commonwealth, and the Excellence thereof, compared with the Inconveniences and Dangers of readmitting Kingship in this Nation." The motto to this performance, hinting probably at the advice which he had publicly given to the Protector,

"et nos

Consilium Syllæ dedimus, demus populo nunc,"

is as happy as his present counsel was opportune. With many evident inconsistencies, which will be easily excused, when we consider his own and the peril of his party, there is much to commend and more to admire. It is full of splendid writing and powerful antimonarchical appeal. It was replied to both sportively and seriously, but not answered. The last of Milton's controversial productions was, "Brief Notes upon a late Sermon, titled, The Fear of God and the King; preached, and since published, by Matthew Griffith, D. D. and Chaplain to the late King. Wherein many notorious wrestings of Scripture, and other Falsities, are observed." On the very eve of the Restoration he avows his republicanism. The insolent L'Estrange wrote a reply, entitled, "No Blind Guides."

A volume might be devoted to the critical examination of his letters, both private and official, on account both of their political and literary excellence. They are all written in Latin. There are thirty-one private ones-forty-three are written in the name of the parliament-seventy-eight in the name of the Protector Oliver-eleven in the name of the Protector Richard-and in the name of the " Parliament Restored," two only were written. The private letters will very much interest the reader. Those to his Athenian friend are noble and affecting, and in a biographical point of view, exceedingly valuable. It is to be regretted that so few epistles of so extensive a correspondent should have been handed down to posterity. It is probable that most of his correspondents were foreigners. The official letters are much more numerous. Milton was an universal genius, and it would

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be difficult to predicate his failure in any undertaking in which learning or sagacity, wisdom or common sense, could insure success. It is a maxim in the mouth of the many, degrading to all who are above the level of mediocrity, and therefore reiterated by those whom the decree of nature has placed below it, that, with the ordinary or extraordinary business of life, the man of science or genius, the philosopher or scholar, cannot meddle without making himself as ridiculous, as his interference must be prejudicial to the interests intrusted to him. This radical blunder has been acted upon in all ages; nor need we wonder at the remark of a certain chancellor to his son: See, with what little wit the world is governed!" Not so thought Oliver Cromwell. His selection of servants in all the departments of government, was very honourable to himself, and the mainspring of his success in war and peace, in foreign and domestic policy. Had Milton left nothing else in prose but these letters, we should have considered them as proofs of his great capacity for business. No mechanical drudge could have written them. With all his ardour of temperament he had an amazing share of "sound round-about common sense "-warmed by pervading genius into a nobler power. We need not point out the historical value of these exquisite models of negociation and composition. The foreign policy of the commonwealth cannot be well understood without an acquaintance with them.

The juvenile Latin productions of Milton may be mentioned here-to recommend them merely, for to examine them minutely would be impossible. They are remarkable for felicity and correctness; for masculine energy, and ripeness of thought, and occasional splendour of expression; and as they show by what laborious industry and indefatigable perseverance our countryman realized the utmost excellence which these writings promised, they should be pointed out to the attention of every youth. In fact, selections from his Latin works, for the use of the higher schools, should immediately be made: they would not interfere with the more ancient classics, which they rival, but would necessarily stimulate to their imitation; and, mingled with a few judicious extracts from his English prose, to be translated into Latin or Greek, or to be used as exercises in recitation, the effect upon youths of a proper age, under a teacher worthy of being intrusted with some such plan, would be incredibly beneficial.

Milton's Latin Grammar, (1661,) and his Logic, (1672,) prove his deep interest in all that related to education. The former has been superseded, but the latter (with the interesting life prefixed to it) will always be regarded as a sound and useful system for discovering truth.

We conclude our task. No political actor ever performed a more distinguished part on a more elevated stage, than John Milton; nor, assuredly, did one ever retire from it so suddenly. Another and far different part of the great drama came on. A Stuart monarch was seated on the throne, and we hear no more of our politician. He was spared by Providence, not by royal clemency. What a change from the blaze of public life to the refuge of obscurity! It was an outward change only-made certainly more distressing by public ingratitude and private neglect, by the helplessness of blindness and poverty, and the increasing miseries of "crude old age." But, supported by celestial manna, and invigorated by the illumining Spirit," the joy and solace of created things," his intellectual strength was more than equal to his day. "The troubled sea of noises and hoarse disputes," on which he had been embarked, and on which he had been wrecked, was now exchanged for the final haven of " a calm and pleasing solitariness, fed with cheerful and confident thoughts;" -and soon he sent forth his immortal poems-the "Paradise Lost”—and "Paradise Regained!" It is sufficient to mention them! His beautiful "Treatise of True Religion, Heresy, Schism, Toleration, and the best means that may be used to prevent the growth of Popery," had not been long published, when he died, in the year 1674, and in the six and sixtieth of his age.

We have only glanced at the contents of this volume. Of itself it is more than sufficient to enable us to form a correct estimate of the literary, political, and religious character of John Milton. Taken in connexion with his poetical works, it will be impossible to produce an author entitled to superior veneration and renown. Equally resplendent in the annals of liberty and of song, the name of the author of these writings is a sufficient guarantee for their interest to the scholar, their value to the politician, and their utility to every patriotic Christian. They are now cast into a proper shape for circulation, and wherever carried, they will administer not less to the delight and profit, than to the intellectual and moral wants and necessities, of the age. In them will be found nothing dangerous or anarchical-dishonourable or polluting. The monarch will not here find any thing to derogate from his just authority. His nobles will here learn true magnanimity-his people be built up in love to their country and to himself, and in "willing homage to the prerogative of the Eternal Throne." The man of taste will be refreshed--the protestant will rejoice in the paramount allegiance of the poet to the great principles of the Reformation. The least will find that he may be useful--the greatest, that he may be worthless ;-the most ignorant will here find an "eye-brightening electuary of knowledge and foresight"-the most learned, that his superior condescended to be most plain. These are the authorized works of a man, who never quailed before a tyrant, or bowed before a mob; but, after exerting the greatest abilities in the greatest of causes, in fortitude, and meekness, and patience possessed his spirit, and became, in adversity and prosperity, an exemplar for a nation of "heroes, of sages, and of worthies."

England is invested with supremacy in literature. She is not indebted for her imperial precedency to many of her sons. Great as is the number of her gigantic minds, two men she has reared and ripened, Milton and Shakspeare, whose achievements alone have raised her to a towering pre-eminence among the nations. Neither the ancients nor the moderns can match these Englishmen. Make the selection from any age, from the bright eras of the past, from the Greek or Roman constellations, to the later luminaries, and theirs will be found to be the brightest names that old Time wears in his gorgeous belt.. To them an Englishman points, and by them settles the supremacy of his country. Without them we might claim equality with other kingdoms; with them we are entitled to superiority. When you think of England, you think of Shakspeare-you think of Milton-they are England. Other nations have heroes, and philosophers, and critics, and scholars, and divines, equal to our own, but they have not Shakspeare and Milton :-we have, and surpass them. Nature gave them to England, and no reverse of fortune can rob us of them. Their works are landmarks, pillars of truth, on these the high places of the earth-and they will be identified with our soil, when our institutions may have been swept from it, and when our political supremacy may have passed away. But, with their works in our hands, and with our Bible, read, and believed, and revered, and upheld, in cottage and in palace, we need not fear the loss of our heritage-the luxury that enfeebles-the vice that enslaves-the wealth that corrupts the anarchy that overwhelms :-intelligence and piety, wisdom, and religion, and power, will be cherished and perpetuated for generations ;-and with those who love these things, and bear the ark of British freedom, we leave, for their guidance and delight, this Book.

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The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce restored to the good of both

Sexes, from the Bondage of Canon Law, and other Mistakes, to the

true Meaning of Scripture in the Law and Gospel compared, &c. 120

The Judgment of Martin Bucer concerning Divorce: written to Ed-

ward the Sixth, in his second Book of the Kingdom of Christ, &c. . 159

TETRACHORDON: Expositions upon the four chief Places in Scripture

which treat of Marriage, or Nullities in Marriage, &c.

COLASTERION: A Reply to a nameless Answer against the Doctrine

and Discipline of Divorce: wherein the trivial Author of that An-

swer is discovered, the Licenser conferred with, and the Opinion,

which they traduce, defended.

The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates; proving, that it is lawful, and

hath been held so through all Ages, for any, who have the Power,

to call to account a Tyrant, or wicked King, and, after due Convic-

tion, to depose, and put him to Death, if the ordinary Magistrate

have neglected, or denied to do it, &c.

Observations on the Articles of Peace between James Earl of Or-

mond, for King Charles the First, on the one hand, and the Irish

Rebels and Papists on the other hand: and on a Letter sent by

Ormond to Colonel Jones, Governor of Dublin: and a Representa-

tion of the Scots Presbytery at Belfast in Ireland. To which the

said Articles, Letter, with Colonel Jones's Answer to it, and Repre-

sentation, &c., are prefixed.

EIKONOCLASTES: in answer to a Book, entitled, Eikon Basilike, the
Portraiture of his sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings.

A DEFENCE of the People of England, in answer to Salmasius's De-

fence of the King

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441

The ready and easy Way to establish a free Commonwealth, and the
Excellence thereof, compared with the Inconveniences and Dangers
of readmitting Kingship in this Nation.
Brief Notes upon a late Sermon, titled, "The Fear of God and the
King," preached, and since published, by Matthew Griffith, D. D.
and Chaplain to the late King, wherein many notorious Wrestings of
Scripture, and other Falsities, are observed.

Accedence commenced Grammar: supplied with sufficient Rules for

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THE

PROSE WORKS OF JOHN MILTON.

OF

REFORMATION IN ENGLAND,

AND

THE CAUSES THAT HITHERTO HAVE HINDERED IT.

IN TWO BOOKS.

WRITTEN TO A FRIEND.

[FIRST PUBLISHED 1641.]

SIR,

AMIDST those deep and retired thoughts, which, with every man christianly instructed, ought to be most frequent of God, and of his miraculous ways and works amongst men, and of our religion and works, to be performed to him; after the story of our Saviour Christ, suffering to the lowest bent of weakness in the flesh, and presently triumphing to the highest pitch of glory in the spirit, which drew up his body also; till we in both be united to him in the revelation of his kingdom, I do not know of any thing more worthy to take up the whole passion of pity on the one side, and joy on the other, than to consider first the foul and sudden corruption, and then, after many a tedious age, the long deferred, but much more wonderful and happy reformation of the church in these latter days. Sad it is to think how that doctrine of the gospel, planted by teachers divinely inspired, and by them winnowed and sifted from the chaff of overdated ceremonies, and refined to such a spiritual height and temper of purity, and knowledge of the Creator, that the body, with all the circumstances of time and place, were purified by the affections of the regenerate soul, and nothing left impure but sin; faith needing not the weak and fallible office of the senses, to be either the ushers or in-off from herself the labour of high soaring any more, terpreters of heavenly mysteries, save where our Lord himself in his sacraments ordained; that such a doctrine should, through the grossness and blindness of her professors, and the fraud of deceivable traditions, drag so downwards, as to backslide into the Jewish beggary of old cast rudiments, and stumble forward

another way into the new-vomited paganism of sensual idolatry, attributing purity or impurity to things indifferent, that they might bring the inward acts of the spirit to the outward and customary eye-service of the body, as if they could make God earthly and fleshly, because they could not make themselves heavenly and spiritual; they began to draw down all the divine intercourse betwixt God and the soul, yea, the very shape of God himself, into an exterior and bodily form, urgently pretending a necessity and obligement of joining the body in a formal reverence, and worship circumscribed; they hallowed it, they fumed it, they sprinkled it, they bedecked it, not in robes of pure innocency, but of pure linen, with other deformed and fantastic dresses, in palls and mitres, gold, and gewgaws fetched from Aaron's old wardrobe, or the flamins vestry: then was the priest set to con his motions and his postures, his liturgies and his lurries, till the soul by this means of overbodying herself, given up justly to fleshly delights, bated her wing apace downward: and finding the ease she had from her visible and sensuous colleague the body, in performance of religious duties, her pinions now broken, and flagging, shifted

forgot her heavenly flight, and left the dull and droiling carcase to plod on in the old road, and drudging trade of outward conformity. And here out of question from her perverse conceiting of God and holy things, she had fallen to believe no God at all, had not custom and the worm of conscience nipped her incredulity:

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