from his childhood, he refused to enter it from a religious scruplo, thinking that he who took orders must subscribe slave.' Hi& opinions on church discipline, which were known by his former treatises to differ essentially from those of the established church, will be found stated with great explicitness, but without any polemical acrimony, in the present volume. See chapter xxxii. '8 6 There were, however, other circumstances of a different nature, which in some degree counterbalanced these defects. His epic poems afford sufficient evidence not only of extensive biblical knowledge, but of singular judgement in availing himself of the language of Scripture itself, without addition or alteration, in particular parts of his subject. There is no topic to which he recurs more frequently or with more apparent satisfaction than to the serious turn of his early studies. In his Apology for Smectymnuus he speaks of the 'wearisome labours and studious watchings wherein he had spent and tired out almost a whole youth. Again, care was ever had of me with my earliest capacity, not to be negligently trained up in the precepts of Christian religion.' In his treatise on education he mentions his many studious and contemplative years altogether spent in the search of religious and civil knowledge,' to which allusion is again made with much feeling in the Defensio Secunda pro Populo Anglicano. He was a proficient in the Hebrew tongue, which he strongly recommends should be gained at a set hour,' that the Scriptures may be 'read in their own original." His own knowledge of this language was probably acquired in his early youth, for in a letter to Young, written in 1625, he thanks him for his acceptable present of a Hebrew Bible; Biblia Hebræa, pergratum sane munus tuum, jampridem accepi." Aubrey and others, who obtained their information from his widow, have related that as long as he lived it was his custom to begin the day with hearing a portion of the Hebrew Scriptures, which a person was employed to read to him; and during every period of his life his Sundays were wholly devoted to theology. The importance which he attached to these pursuits is further confirmed by what Birch relates of the system pursued by him with his pupils. The Sunday's work for his pupils was for the most part to read a chapter of the Greek Testament, and hear his exposition of it. The next work after this was to write from his dictation some part of a system of divinity which he collected from the most eminent writers upon that subject, as Amesius, Wollebius, Bp. Van Mildert's Review of Waterland's Life and Writings. Works, 8 Prose Works, III. 119. I. 48. • Ibid. 464, 274. Symmons' ed. V. 199, 230, 233. 1 Ibid. III. 473. &c. Some account of the treatises to which he is said to have been indebted for this compilation, will be found in a note on the seventh chapter of Book ií. Nourished with these studies, and imbued with a salutary abhorrence of indolence and licentious excess, the ordinary failings of youth, Milton's mind acquired from his earliest years that reverential and devotional cast which is perceptible in all his writings. In the sonnet written on attaining his three and twentieth year, he unfolds the principle on which he acted. Be it less or more, or soon or slow, It shall be still in strictest measure even Towards which time leads me, and the will of Heaven; As ever in my great Taskmaster's eye, The pious language in which, at a later period of his life, he speaks of his blindness, is not more affecting as a display of the mental consolations whereby he was supported under his personal infirmities, than characteristic of his religious feelings. Sic denique habento; me sortis meæ neque pigere neque pœnitere; immotum atque fixum in sententia perstare; Deum iratum neque sentire neque habere; immo maximis in rebus clementiam ejus et benignitatem erga me paternam experiri atque agnoscere; in hoc præsertim, quod solante ipso atque animum confirmante in ejus divina voluntate acquiescam; quid is largitus mihi sit quam quid negaverit sæpius cogitans: postremo nolle me cum suo quovis rectissime facto facti mei conscientiam permutare, aut recordationem ejus gratam mihi semper atque tranquillam deponere. Ad cæcitatem denique quod attinet, malle me, si necesse est, meam, quam vel suam, More, vel tuam. Vestra imis sensibus immersa, ne quid sani videatis aut solidi, mentem obcæcat: mea quam objicitis, colorem tantummodo rebus et superficiem demit; quod verum ac stabile in iis est contemplationi mentis non adimit. Quam multa deinde sunt quæ videre nollem; quam multa quæ possem, libens non videre; quam pauca reliqua sunt quæ videre cupiam! Sed neque ego cæcis, afflictis, morentibus, imbecillis, tametsi vos id miserum ducitis, aggregari me discrucior; quandoquidem spes est eo me propius ad misericordiam summi Patris atque tutelam pertinere. Est quoddam per imbecillitatem, præeunte apostolo, ad maximas vires iter: sim ego debilissimus, dummodo in mea debilitate immortalis ille et melior vigo eo se efficacius exerat; dummodo in meis tenebris divini vultus lumen eo clarius eluceat: tum enim infirmissiraus ero simul et validia. Account of the Life and Writings of Mr. J. Milton, p. xxiii. 4to. Loudon, 1753. simus, cæcus eodem tempore et perspicacissimus; hac possim ego infirmitate consummari, hac perfici, possim in hac obscuritate sic ego irradiari. Et sane haud ultima Dei cura cæci sumus ; qui nos, quo minus quicquam aliud præter ipsum cernere valemus, eo elementius atque benignius respicere dignatur. Væ qui illudit nos, væ qui lædit, execratione publica devovendo: nos ab injuriis hominum non modo incolumes, sed pene sacros divina lex reddidit, divinus favor; nec tam oculorum hebetudine, quam colestium alarum umbra has nobis fecisse tenebras videtur, factas illustrare rursus interiore ac longe præstabiliore lumine haud raro solet."4 Again, in the second book of The Reason of Church Government, a passage occurs of singular beauty, which shows how devotedly the author was attached to the illustration of sacred subjects, whether in the works of imagination, or of pure reasoning. These abilities, wheresoever they be found, are the inspired gift of God rarely bestowed, but yet to some (though most abuse) in every nation; and are of power, beside the office of a pulpit, to inbred and cherish in a great people the seeds of virtue and public civility, to allay the perturbations of the mind, and set the affections in right tune; to celebrate in glorious and lofty hymns the throne and equipage of God's almightiness, and what he works, and what he suffers to be wrought with high providence in his church; to sing victorious agonies of martyrs and saints, the deeds and triumphs of just and pious nations doing valiantly through faith against the enemies of Christ; to deplore the general relapses of kingdoms and states from justice and God's true worship. Lastly, whatsoever in religion is holy and sublime, in virtue amiable or grave, whatsoever hath passion or admiration in all the changes of that which is called fortune from without, or the wily subtleties and refluxes of man's thoughts from within; all these things with a solid and treatable smoothness to paint out and describe; teaching over the whole book of sanctity and virtue, through all the instances of example, with such delight, to those especially of soft and delicious temper, who will not so much as look upon truth herself unless they see her elegantly dressed, that whereas the paths of honesty and good life appear now rugged and difficult, though they be indeed easy and pleasant, they will then appear to all men both easy and pleasant, though they were rugged and difficult indeed.'5 To these quotations another of a different kind may be not improperly added, as well on account of the eloquence of the passage, as in proof that the author's opinions respecting the Tri Defensio Secunda pro Populo Anglicano. Prose Works, Symmons' ed. 5 Prose Works. II. 479. 480. V. 216. nity were at ne time different from those which are disclosed in the present treatise. Which way to get out, or which way to end I know not, unless I turn mine eyes, and with your help lift up my hands, to that eternal and propitious throne, where nothing is readier than grace and refuge to the distresses of mortal suppliants and it were a shame to leave these serious thoughts less piously than the heathen were wont to conclude their graver discourses. Thou, therefore, that sittest in light and glory unapproachable, Parent of angels and men! next thee I implore, omnipotent King, Redeemer of that lost remnant whose nature thou didst assume, ineffable and everlasting Love! And thou, the third subsistence of divine infinitude, illumining the Spirit, the joy and solace of created things! one tripersonal Godhead! look upon this thy poor and almost spent and expiring church; leave her not thus a prey to these importunate wolves, that wait and think long till they devour thy tender flock; these wild boars that have broke into thy vineyard, and left the print of their polluting hoofs on the souls of thy servants. O let them not bring about their damned designs, that stand now at the entrance of the bottomless pit, expecting the watchword to open and let out those dreadful locusts and scorpions, to reinvolve us in that pitchy cloud of infernal darkness, where we shall never more see the sun of thy truth again, never hope for the cheerful dawn, never more hear the bird of morning sing.'5 There is much reason for regretting that the prose works of Milton, where, in the midst of much that is coarse and intemperate, passages of such redeeming beauty occur, should be in the hands of so few readers, considering the advantage which might be derived to our literature from the study of their original and nervous eloquence. On their first appearance, indeed, they must inevitably have been received by some with indifference, by others with dislike, by many with resentment. The zeal of the author in the cause of the Parliament, and the bitter personality with which he too frequently advocates his civil and religious opinions, were not calculated to secure him a dispassionate hearing even from his most candid opponents, But in happier times, when it is less difficult to make allowance for the effervescence caused by the heat of conflicting politics, and when the judgment is no longer influenced by the animosities of party, the taste of the age may be profitably and safely recalled to those treatises of Milton which were not written to serve a mere temporary purpose. In one re 5 Of Reformation in England. Prose Works, II. 471. See indeed the entire context of this and the preceding quotation. Compare also the eloquent conclusion of the fourth section of Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's Defence, III. 69–72. spect indeed they will be found to differ very materially from the work now published. The latter is distinguished in a remarkable degree by calmness of thought, as well as by moderation of language. His other writings are generally loaded with ornament and illustration bordering on the poetical, rather than the argumentative style, and such is the vehemence with which he pours out his opprobrious epithets against his antagonists, that he seems to exhaust the powers of language in the bitterness of his invective. These are the characteristics in particular of his earliest works, and especially of his declamations against Morus and Salmasius. The contrast which this volume presents is singular, and if, as is probable, it was composed during his declining years it affords a pleasing picture of a mind softened by the influence of religious principle, and becoming gradually more tolerant of the supposed errors of others, as the period drew near when he must answer for his own before an unerring tribunal. Milton pursues his plan, not indeed without an occasional sally against academical institutions and ecclesiastical privileges, but without a single glance at contemporaneous politics, or a single harsh expression against religious opinions at variance with his own. His language, even where the arguments themselves are least convincing, is almost uniformly plain and temperate, and his metaphors are sparingly and judiciously introduced. Milton could never write long on any subject without being poetical or eloquent; but whoever expects to meet in the following treatise with set exhibitions either of poetry or eloquence, will be disappointed at finding that the aim of the writer has been the discussion of truth, the simple delivery of a system of Christian theology, derived from the Bible, and as much as possible couched in its very words, not the display of an imagination, almost infinitely excursive, or of learning the most profound and universal of any age or country. It would seem as if he recognized the propriety, on so grave a subject as religion, of suffering the mind to pursue its contemplations undisturbed by the flights of that vivid fancy, to which, on the ordinary topics which employed his pen, he prescribed no limits. Milton has shewn a partiality in all his works, even on subjects not immediately connected with religion, for supporting his argument by the authority of Scripture. This practice, though agreeable to the spirit of his age, is not unfrequently carried to an extravagant length; as when he defends indiscriminate reading by the examples of Moses, Daniel, and St. Paul, who were saiful in heathen learning. To a theological treatise, however, illustrations of this kind properly belong; and it is gratifying to see the un Areopagitica. Prose Works, II. 63. |