ARIOSTO. Then past he to a flow'ry mountain green, HORACE. Whom do we count a good man? Whom but he EURIPIDES.1 This is true liberty, when freeborn men Having t' advise the public may speak free; HORACE." Laughing, to teach the truth, What hinders? As some teachers give to boys HORACE.P Joking decides great things. Stronger and better oft than earnest can.a SOPHOCLES.' 'Tis you that say it, not I. You do the deeds, And your ungodly deeds find me the words." SENECA.t There can be slain No sacrifice to God more acceptable, XIX. On the new forcers of conscience under the Long BECAUSE you have thrown off your Prelate Lord, From them whose sin ye envied, not abhorr'd, To force our consciences that Christ set free, This copy of verses was first added in the second edition of the author's poems in 1673, and I suppose was made, when the Directory was established, and disputes ran high between the Presbyterians and Independents in the year 1645, the latter pleading for a toleration, and the former against it. And in the Manuscript it is not in Milton's own hand, but in another, the same that wrote some of the Sonnets. 1. Because you have thrown off your Prelate Lord, &c.] In railing at establishments, Milton not only condemned episcopacy. He thought even the simple institutions of the new reformation too rigid and arbitrary for the natural freedom of conscience. He contended for that sort of individual or personal religion, by which every man is to be his own priest. When these verses were written, which form an irregular sonnet, presbyterianism was triumphant: and the independents and the churchmen joined in one 5 common complaint against a want of toleration. The church of Calvin had now its heretics. T. Warton. 2. And with stiff vows renounc'd his Liturgy,] The Directory was enforced under severe penalties in 1644. The legislature prohibited the use of the Book of Common Prayer, not only in places of public worship, but in private families. T. Warton. 3. -the widow'd whore] In the Manuscript it was at first -the vacant whore. 7.-with a classic hierarchy] In the Presbyterian form of government there were congregational, classical, provincial, and national assemblies. See what the author says in his Observations on the Irish peace, p. 356. vol. i. edit. 1738. "Their next "impeachment is, that we oppose "the Presbyterial government, the "hedge and bulwark of religion. "Which all the land knows to "be a most impudent falsehood, "having established it with all Taught ye by mere A, S. and Rotherford? Men whose life, learning, faith, and pure intent "freedom, wherever it hath "been desired. Nevertheless, 66 as we perceive it aspiring to "be a compulsive power upon "all without exception in pa"rochial, classical, and provin"cial hierarchies, or to require "the fleshly arm of magistracy " in the execution of a spiritual discipline, to punish and amerce "by any corporal infliction those "whose consciences cannot be "edified by what authority they are compelled, we hold it no more to be the hedge and bul"wark of religion, than the Popish and Prelatical courts, "or the Spanish Inquisition." 8. Taught ye by mere A. S. and Rotherford?] The independents were now contending for toleration. In 1643, their principal leaders published a pamphlet with this title, "An Apo 66 logeticall Narration of some "Ministers formerly exiles in "the Netherlands, now members of the Assembly of Divines. "Humbly submitted to the ho"nourable Houses of Parliament. "By Thomas Goodwyn, Sy"drack Sympson, Philip Nye, "Jer. Burroughs, and William Bridge, the authors thereof. "Lond. 1643." In quarto. Their system is a middle way between Brownism and presbytery. This piece was answered by one A. S. the person intended by Milton. "Some Observations and Anno"tations upon the Apologeticall "Narration, humbly submitted "to the honourable Houses of "Parliament, the most reverend " and learned divines of the As"sembly, and all the protestant "churches here in this island "and abroad. Lond. 1644." In quarto. The Dedication is subscribed A. S. The independents then retorted upon A. S. in a pamphlet called "A Reply of "the two Brothers to A. S. "Wherein you have Observa"tions, Annotations, &c. upon "the Apologeticall Narration. "With a plea for liberty of "conscience for the apologists "church-way: against the cavils "of the said A. S. formerly "called M. S. to A. S. &c. &c. "Lond. 1644." In quarto. I quote from the second edition enlarged. There is another piece by A. S. It is called a " Reply "to the second Return." This I have never seen. His name was never known. Samuel Rutherford, or Rutherfoord, was one of the chief commissioners of the church of Scotland, who sate with the Assembly at Westminster, and who concurred in settling the grand points of presbyterian discipline. He was professor of divinity in the university of Saint Andrew's, and has left a great variety of Calvinistic tracts. He was an avowed enemy to the independents, as appears from his Disputation on pretended liberty of conscience, 1649. This was answered by John Cotton a Separatist of New England. It is hence easy to see, why Rutherford was an obnoxious character to Milton. Rutherford's Letters, called Joshua Redivivus, are a genuine specimen of the enthusiastic cant of the old Scotch Divines. Their ninth edition Would have been held in high esteem with Paul, 10 Must now be nam'd and printed Heretics By shallow Edwards and Scotch what d'ye call: But we do hope to find out all your tricks, Your plots and packing worse than those of Trent, appeared at Glasgow so late as in 1765. T. Warton. 12. By shallow Edwards &c.] In the Manuscript it was at first harebrain'd Edwards. He wrote the Gangræna, a book in which the errors, heresies, blasphemies, and lewd practice, which broke out in the last four years (1642, 1643, 1644, 1645,) are recited: see Collier's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 855. Mr. Thyer gives this account of it, that it was published in 1646, and dedicated to the Parliament by Thomas Edwards, minister of the Gospel, and was intitled Gangræna, or a Catalogue and Discovery of many of the errors, heresies, blasphemies, and pernicious practices of the Sectaries of this time, vented and acted in England in these four last years. Scotch what d'ye call might be perhaps the famous Alexander Henderson, or as that expression implies some hard name, George Gillespie, a Scotch minister and commissioner at Westminster, called Galaspe in Whitlock, and Galasp in one of our author's Sonnets: and nothing could be expressed with greater contempt. 12. It is not the Gangrena of Thomas Edwards that is here the object of Milton's resentment. Edwards had attacked Milton's favourite plan of independency, in a pamphlet full of miserable invectives, immediately and pro mons, &c. &c. By Thomas "Edwards, &c. Lond. 1641." In quarto. However, in the Gangrena, not less than in these two tracts, it had been his business to blacken the opponents of presbyterian uniformity, that the Parliament might check their growth by penal statutes. Against such enemies, Milton's chief hope of enjoying a liberty of conscience, and a permission to be of any religion but popery, was in Cromwell, who for political reasons allowed all professions. See Sonn. xvi. 11. Î. Warton. 14. Your plots and packing |