From them whose sin ye envied, not abhorr'd; Taught ye by mere A. S.* and Rutherford ?+ May, with their wholesome and preventive shears, When they shall read this clearly in your charge, * Adam Stuart, a divine of the church of Scotland, and the author of several polemical tracts; some portions of which commenced with A. S. only prefixed. + Samuel Rotherford, or Rutherford, one of the chief commissioners of the church of Scotland, and professor of divinity in the church of St. Andrew. He published a great variety of Calvinistic tracts. Thomas Edwards, minister, a pamphleteering opponent of Milton: whose plan of independency he assailed with shallow invectives. § Perhaps Henderson, or Baillie, or Galaspie, Scotch divines: the former of whom appears as a loving friend,” in Rutherford's Redivivus; and the latter was one of the ecclesiastical commissioners at Westminster. CHAPTER IV. 1648-1653. WHILE the king had been a prisoner, and preparations were making for his trial, the Presbyterians of Sion College were very clamorous with the parliament that no harm might be done to his royal person, as such a proceeding would be a violation of the solemn league and covenant, &c. Their complaints too, after the execution of the king, were very loud. The following is the statement of Neale, the historian of the Puritans, in reference to this period:-- "The parliament tried several methods to reconcile the Presbyterians to the present administration: Persons were appointed to treat with them, and assure them of the protection of the government, and of the full enjoyment of their ecclesiastical preferments according to law; when this would not do, an order was published, that' ministers in their pulpits should not meddle with knowledge." The following lines refer to this period. WHEN THE ASSAULT WAS INTENDED TO THE CITY. Captain, or Colonel, or Knight in arms, Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize, Guard them, and him within protect from harms. To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare." We are now arrived at the period when MILTON was called upon to fill the honourable office of Latin secretary to the council of state, to which he had been called soon after the death of the king.* This public mark of respect from the republican government, for a man who had hitherto been the object of affected scorn, a mere schoolmaster in the estimation, first of the PRELATES, and then of the NEW PRIESTS WRIT LARGE! must have been * He now removed to a lodging in the house of one Thompson, at Charing Cross; and afterwards to apartments provided for him in Scotland Yard: here his wife gave birth to a son, who died 16th of March, 1650. very galling, and exceedingly mortifying to their narrow and contracted souls. That he who, through their bigotry, had been cited to appear before the House of Lords, to give an account of his principles, which even admitting them in any respect to have been erroneous, were not a matter for the cognizance of the civil magistrate; and respecting whom the redoubtable Dr. D. Featly had, in 1644, entreated "The most noble Lords," &c. &c. that he might be cut off as a pestilent Anabaptist; should now have become a member of, or at least a constant attendant on, the chief council of the nation, and who, of course, must have had an influence to restrain the holy brotherhood from punishing those who, as regarded "working the work of the Lord," were better ministers than themselves! One should conclude, they could not have helped thinking that they were the degraded Haman, and that MILTON was the exalted Mordecai." The following poem was probably produced by the attempt of the Presbyterians to get his book on Divorce burnt by the common hangman, and himself punished as an heretic in religion. "ON THE NEW FORCERS OF CONSCIENCE UNDER THE LONG PARLIAMENT. "Because you have thrown off your prelate lord, And with stiff vows renounced his liturgy, To seize the widow'd whore Plurality ро From them whose sin ye envied, not abhorr'd; To force our consciences that Christ set free, Taught ye by mere A. S.* and Rutherford ?+ May, with their wholesome and preventive shears, When they shall read this clearly in your charge, New Presbyter is but old Priest WRIT LARGE." * Adam Stuart, a divine of the church of Scotland, and the author of several polemical tracts; some portions of which commenced with A. S. only prefixed. + Samuel Rotherford, or Rutherford, one of the chief commissioners of the church of Scotland, and professor of divinity in the church of St. Andrew. He published a great variety of Calvinistic tracts. Thomas Edwards, minister, a pamphleteering opponent of Milton whose plan of independency he assailed with shallow invectives. § Perhaps Henderson, or Baillie, or Galaspie, Scotch divines: the former of whom appears as a loving friend," in Rutherford's Redivivus; and the latter was one of the ecclesiastical commissioners at Westminster. |