In the course of so long a work, embracing such a variety of topics, many opportunities would often occur for allusion to the politics of the times, in which religion bore so important a part. To have abstained from any reference to these subjects, is no ordinary proof of discretion in one who had dedicated his time and talents with such unwearied zeal to promote the objects of his party. Scarcely a sentence, however, will be found, in which local or temporary interests can be suspected of having influenced the mind of the author. Sometimes indeed he lays a stress on certain particulars, to which the subjects then in dispute between the conflicting religious parties gave more importance than they now possess. The power of the keys, for instance, claimed by the Pope, was then a familiar topic of discussion. Hence he takes occasion to bring proof from Scripture, that the administration of ecclesiastical discipline is not committed exclusively to Peter and his successors, or to any individual pastor specifically, but to the whole particular church, whether consisting of few or of many members. The subjects of Episcopacy and covenants might have furnished him with the opportunities not only of lashing the Royalists in general, but of renewing those attacks which he had formerly directed so pertinaciously against King Charles himself. It may be worth while to contrast his manner of treating the subject of Covenants in his political tracts, with some corresponding remarks on the following treatise. He says in his Eiconoclastes, Neither was the covenant superfluous, though former engagements, both religious and legal, bound us before;' but was the practice of all churches heretofore intending reformation. All Israel, though bound enough before by the law of Moses to all necessary duties,' yet with Asa their king entered into a new covenant at the beginning of a reformation: and the Jews after captivity, without consent demanded of that king who was their master, took solemn oath to walk in the commandments of God. All Protestant churches have done the like, notwithstanding former engagements to their several duties."2 Compare with this passage the observations to the same effect, in the beginning of the chapter on Church Discipline in this volume, where, although the events of his own times could not but have been present to his mind during the composition of a passage so similar, he nevertheless entirely abstains even from the remotest reference to them. It is a prudent as well as a pious custom, to solemnize the formation or re-establishment of a particular church by a public renewal of the covenant, as was frequently done in the reformations of the Jewish church, Deut. xxix. 1. The same took 6 Page 471. See also the 'Casting of Lots.' Book II. chap. v. place under Asa, Ezra, Nehemiah, and others. So also, when an individual unites himself to a particular church, it is requisite that he should enter into a solemn covenant with God and the church to conduct himself in all respects, both towards the one and the other, so as to promote his own edification, and that of his brethren. Again, speaking of the penitential meditations and vows of Charles at Holmby, Milton says, in the same treatise which has been already quoted, 'It is not hard for any man who hath a Bible in his hands, to borrow good words and holy sayings in abundance; but to make them his own is a work of grace only from above." A sentiment precisely similar occurs in this work, but not the most covert allusion is added which can recal to the mind of the reader the charge of insincerity formerly advanced against the unfortunate monarch in nearly the same language. He is equally cautious where he argues that marriage is only a civil contract, an opinion acted upon by his party during the Interregnum. In p. 597, a favourable opportunity presented itself for inveighing against Archbishop Laud's consecration of churches, at that time one of the favourite topics of abuse among the Puritanical party, and probably alluded to in Paradise Lost. .God attributes to place No sanctity, if none be thither brought By men who there frequent, or therein, dwell. XI. 836. But neither in this place, nor in his remarks on the sanctification of the Sabbath, another of the controverted subjects of his day, and not avoided by the author in his political writings (see Eiconoclastes, I. 323), is a single expression employed which can expose him to the charge of substituting the language of the polemic for that of the divine, or of forgetting the calmness befitting the character of an inquirer after religious truth, to indulge in a second triumph over a political adversary. Many doubts hitherto entertained respecting the real opinions of Milton on certain subjects are removed by the present treatise, to which, as originally intended for a posthumous work, no suspicion of insincerity can attach. Some of them will be seen to depart so far from received opinions, that they could not have been promulgated at the period when they were written, consistently with the safety of the author. High church principles were then at the zenith of their popularity, and it would have been the height of imprudence for him to have provoked the animosity of that party in the state to whose lenity he already owed his life and fortune. Some of his dogmas too are such as, Prose Works, I. 462. 3 Page 470. even in more settled times, would have exposed the writer who professed them to certain controversy, and to possible danger. But of all the charges which private or political prejudice has created against the author, that of being a time-server, according to the reproach of Warburton, seems to have been the least deserved. The honesty of his sentiments is sufficiently vindicated by the boldness with which he uniformly expressed them in times when freedom of speech was more than ordinarily dangerous, as well as by his consistent exposure of what he conceived to be erroneous, whether advocated by his own friends or by his opponents. Thus on discovering that new presbyter was but old priest writ large,' he resisted the encroachments of the presbyterians as resolutely as he had before contributed to overthrow prelacy; and, if it were necessary, his political inde-. pendence might be no less successfully vindicated by adducing the spirited language which he addressed to Cromwell in the plenitude of his power. He has however been charged with concealing his opinions on a subject of no less importance than Popery, and even of entertaining a secret inclination in its favour. This imputation, considering the multifariousness of Milton's writings, may perhaps have received some colour from the silence which he generally observes with regard to the doctrines of the Church of Rome, although incidental phrases, sufficiently indicative of the soundness of his protestant principles, sometimes occur. See particularly his Treatise on True Religion,' his latest publication, in which he recommends the study of the Bible to all classes of men, as the best preservative against Popery. His reason for not entering upon the subject more at large is assigned in the preface to the present work, and it is simply this, that the cause of Protestantism appeared to be so firmly established, as to stand in no need of his services. He professed to employ his pen, as we learn from his own testimony," only where, in his judgment, the good of his country or the interests of religion required it. Acting on this principle, he undertook successively to oppose episcopacy, to advocate the cause of liberty, of education, and of a free press. But perceiving, as he tells us, that the strong holds of the reformed religion were sufficiently fortified, as far as they were exposed to danger from the Papists, he directed his attention to more neglected subjects, and exerted his talents in the defence of civil or of religious liberty. Encouraged perhaps by this comparative silence, and presuming on the supposed absence of additional written evidence to falsify his statement, Titus Oates 5 Defensio Secunda pro Populo Anglicano. Prose Works, Symmons' ed. V. 233. 6 6 Preface, p. ix. did not scruple to accuse Milton of being a member of a Popish Club. "The Popish lord is not forgotten, or unknown, who brought a petition to the late regicides and usurpers, signed by about five hundred principal Papists in England; wherein was promised, upon condition of a toleration of the Popish religion here by law, their joint resolution to abjure and exclude the family of the Stuarts for ever from their undoubted right to the Crown. Who more disheartened the loyalty and patience of your best subjects than their confident scribblers, White and others? And MILTON was a known frequenter of a Popish Club.' See the Address or Dedication to the King prefixed to 'A true Narrative of the Horrid Plot, &c. of the Popish party against the life of his Sacred Majesty, &c. By Titus Oates, D.D. folio, Lond. 1679.' This charge was subsequently copied into A History of all the Popish Plots, &c. from the first year of Elizabeth to this present year 1684, by Thos. Long, Prebendary of Exeter;' who says, p. 93. Milton was by very many suspected to be a Papist; and if Dr. Oates may be believed, was a known frequenter of the Popish Club, though he were Cromwell's Secretary.' The evidence furnished by the present publication will show how improbable it is that Milton, who, even within the precincts of the Papal dominions, had been at so little pains to moderate his zeal for the reformed religion, as to be exposed to insult and personal danger in consequence of his known principles, should have consented to sit at the same secret council-board with his alleged confederates. See particularly p. 239, on the marriage of priests; p. 318, on purgatory; p. 414, &c. on transubstantiation; p. 420, on the sacrifice of the mass; p. 421, &c. on the five Papistical sacraments; p. 427, on the authority of the Roman pontiffs; p. 451, on traditions; p. 464, on councils. On the subject of Divorce, the line of argument pursued in this treatise coincides with the well-known opinions which Milton has elsewhere so zealously advocated. To his heterodoxy on this point must now be added, what hitherto has been unsuspected, his belief in the lawfulness of polygamy, to which he appears to have been led by the difficulty he found in reconciling the commonly received opinion with the practice of the patriarchs. It seems however no less easy to conceive that the Supreme Lawgiver might dispense with his own laws in the early ages of the world, for the sake of multiplying the population in a quicker ratio, than that marriages between brothers and sisters might be then permitted on account of the paucity of inhabitants on the face of the earth. Yet the existence of the latter practice in the primeval ages has never been alleged as a sufficient authority for 7 See Lightfoot, II. 95. the intermarriage of so near relations, now that the reason for the original permission has ceased to operate. It should be remembered likewise that polygamy seems to have ceased even among the Jews previously to the advent of our Lord, as we meet with no instance of it recorded in the New Testament. Something too, must be conceded to the Judaizing spirit of Milton's age, which led him, in his deference for the authority and examples of the Jewish dispensation, to make the Christianity of the New Testament subservient to the religion of the Old. But Milton's views, both with respect to divorce and polygamy, may be considered to have been materially influenced by the low estimation in which he held the female sex. Whatever may be thought of the truth of the stories current of his behaviour as a husband and a father, it is undeniable that he held strong notions respecting the inequality of the sexes, and shewed a strong disposition to support in his practice his own theory of this indelible character of priority, which God had marked the man with.' If the character of Eve be objected, it should be remembered, that she is represented as passively obedient to the will of Adam by divine prescription. ..... What thou bidd'st Unargu'd I obey; so God ordains; God is thy law: thou mine. That this was his habitual and settled opinion is evident from the frequency with which he introduces it in his prose works, as well as in his poetry; witness the passages quoted in the notes page 224 and Book II. chap. xv.; witness also the eagerness with which he fixes on the submission of Salmasius to the tyranny of his wife, as one of the topics of his splendid though bitter invective against his political adversary. 6 Doubts have frequently been entertained as to the real senti ments of Milton respecting the second person of the Trinity. His commentators and biographers indeed have striven to rescue him from the charge of any heretical taint. Newton is assiduous in praising his theological views, although he once so far qualifies his assertion, as to content himself with pronouncing that Milton is generally truly orthodox.' In his life, however, after noticing that some had inclined to believe that Milton was an Arian, he asserts that there are more express passages scattered among his works to overthrow this opinion than to confirm it. So also Dr. Trapp Neque alienum videtur a studiis viri theologi poema magna ex parte theologicum; omni ex parte (rideant, per me licet, atque ringantur athei et infideles) orthodoxum." Even : 8 Preface to his translation of Paradise Lost. See also Todd's Life, pp. 156-7; Symmons', p. 443. |