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"God the Son." And in Paradife Loft we fhall find nothing upon this head, that is not perfectly agreeable to Scripture. The learned Dr. Trap, who was as likely to cry out upon herefy as any man, afferts that the poem is orthodox in every part of it; or otherwise he would not have been at the pains of tranflating it. Neque alienum videtur a ftudiis viri theologi poema magna ex parte theologicum; omni ex parte (rideant, per me licet, atque ringantur athei et infideles) orthodoxum. Milton was in

deed a diffenter from the Church of England, in which he had been educated, and was by his parents defigned for holy orders, as we related before; but he was led away by early prejudices against the doctrin and disciplin of the Church; and in his younger years was a favorer of the Prefbyterians; in his middle age he was beft pleased with the Independents and Anabaptifts, as allowing greater liberty of conscience than others, and coming nearest in his opinion to the primitive practice; and in the latter part of his life he was not a profeffed member of any particular fect of Chriftians, he frequented no public worship, nor used any religious rite in his family. Whether fo many different forms of worship as he had feen, had made him indifferent to all forms; or whether he thought that all Chriftians had in fome things corrupted the purity and fimplicity of the Gofpel; or whether he difliked their endless and uncharitable difputes, and that love of dominion and inclination to perfecution, which he faid was a piece of Popery infeparable from all Churches; or whether he believed, that a man might be a good Chriftian without joining in any

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communion; or whether he did not look upon himself as inspired, as wrapt up in God, and above all forms and ceremonies, it is not eafy to determin: to his own mafter he ftandeth or falleth: but if he was of any denomination, he was a fort of a Quietift, and was full of the interior of religion tho' he fo little regarded the exterior; and it is certain was to the last an enthusiast rather than an infidel. As enthusiasm made Norris a poet, fo poetry might make Milton an enthusiast.

His circumstances were never very mean, nor very great; for he lived above want, and was not intent upon accumulating wealth; his ambition was more to enrich and adorn his mind. His father fupported him in his travels, and for fome time after. Then his pupils must have been of fome advantage to him, and brought him either a certain ftipend or confiderable prefents at leaft; and he had fcarcely any other method of improving his fortune, as he was of no profeffion. When his father died, he inherited an elder fon's fhare of his eftate, the principal part of which I believe was his houfe in Bread ftreet: And not long after, he was appointed Latin Secretary with a falary of 200l. a year; so that he was now in opulent circumstances for a man, who had always led a frugal and temperate life, and was at little unneceffary expenfe befides buying of books. Tho' he was of the victorious party, yet he was far from fharing in the fpoils of his country. On the contrary (as we learn from his fecond Defenfe) he sustained great loffes during the civil war, and was not at all favored in the impofition of taxes, but fometimes paid beyond his due propor

tion. And upon a turn of affairs he was not only deprived of his place, but also loft 2000l. which he had for fecurity and improvement put into the Excife Office. He loft likewife another confiderable fum for want of proper care and management, as perfons of Milton's genius are feldom expert in money matters. And in the fire of London his houfe in Bread ftreet was burnt, before which accident foreigners have gone out of devotion (fays Wood) to fee the house and chamber where he was born. His gains were inconfiderable in proportion to his loffes; for excepting the thousand pounds, which were given him by the government for writing his Defense of the people against Salmafius, we may conclude that he got very little by the copies of his works, when it doth not appear that he received any more than ten pounds for Paradife Loft. Some time before he died he fold the greatest part of his library, as his heirs were not qualified to make a proper use of it, and as he thought that he could difpofe of it to greater advantage than they could after his decease. And finally by one means or other he died worth one thousand five hundred pounds befides his houfhold goods, which was no incompetent fubfiftence for him, who was as great a philofopher as a poet.

To this account of Milton it may be proper to add fomething concerning his family. We faid before, that he had a younger brother and a fifter. His brother Chriftopher Milton was a man of totally oppofit principles; was a ftrong royalift, and after the civil war made his compofition thro' his brother's intereft; had been entered young a ftudent in

the Inner Temple, of which house he lived to be an ancient bencher; and being a profeffed papift, was in the reign of James II. made a judge and knighted; but foon obtained his quietus by reafon of his age and infirmities, and retired to Ipfwich, where he lived all the latter part of his life. His fifter Anne Milton had a confiderable fortune given her by her father in marriage with Mr. Edward Philips (fon of Mr. Edward Philips of Shrewsbury) who coming young to London was bred up in the Crown Office in Chancery, and at length became fecondary of the office under Mr. Bembo. By him fhe had, befides other children who died infants, two fons Edward and John, whom we have had frequent occafion to mention before. Among our author's juvenile poems there is a copy of verfes on the death of a fair infant, a nephew, or rather niece of his, dying of a cough; and this being written in his 17th year, as it is faid in the title, it may naturally be inferred that Mrs. Philips was elder than either of her brothers. She had likewife two daughters, Mary who died very young, and Anne who was living in 1694, by a fecond husband Mr. Thomas Agar, who fucceeded his intimate friend Mr. Philips in his place in the Crown Office, which he enjoyed many years, and left to Mr. Thomas Milton, fon of Sir Chriftopher before mentioned. As for Milton himself he appears to have been no enemy to the fair fex by having had three wives. What fortune he had with any of them is no where faid, but they were gentlemen's daughters; and it is remarkable that he married them all maidens, for (as he fays in his Apology for Smectymnuus, which

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was written before he married at all) he "thought "with them, who both in prudence and elegance "of fpirit would choose a virgin of mean fortunes "honeftly bred before the wealthiest widow." But yet he feemeth not to have been very happy in any of his marriages; for his first wife had juftly offended him by her long abfence and feparation from him; the fecond, whofe love, fweetness, and goodness he commends, lived not a twelvemonth with him; and his third wife is faid to have been a woman of a most violent spirit, and a hard mother in law to his children. She died very old, about. twenty years ago, at Nantwich in Cheshire: and from the accounts of those who had feen her, I have learned, that the confirmed feveral things which have been related before; and particularly that her husband used to compose his poetry chiefly in winter, and on his waking in a morning would make her write down sometimes twenty or thirty verfes and being asked whether he did not often read Homer and Virgil, the understood it as an imputation upon him for ftealing from thofe authors, and answered with eagerness that he ftole from no body but the Muse who infpired him; and being asked by a lady prefent who the Mufe was, replied it was God's grace, and the Holy Spirit that vifited him nightly. She was likewife afked whom he approved most of our English poets, and anfwered Spenfer, Shakespear, and Cowley: and being asked what he thought of Dryden, the faid Dryden ufed fometimes to vifit him, but he thought him no poet, but a good rimist: but this was before Dryden had compofed his best poems, which made his name fo famous

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