was inclosed in a cover directed to Mr. Skinner, merchant, the same Cyriac Skinner to whom Milton addressed his sonnet on his blindness. The packet was found to contain the State Letters of Milton, and a manuscript entitled, "Idea Theologiæ,” of Milton's authorship, of which there exists abundant evidence, both external and internal. It constitutes a complete body of divinity, consisting of two books: the first "On the Knowledge of God," and the second "On the Service of God:" the former divided into thirty-three, and the latter into seventeen, chapters. The translation and editing of this manuscript was confided by George IV. to Mr. Sumner, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, by whom it was published in 1825. A few sentences from the most important chapters must suffice to indicate the theological views of Milton at the closing period of his life.

On the Divine Nature he says:-"Our safest way is to form in our minds such a conception of God as shall correspond with his own delineation and representation of himself in the sacred writings. For it is on this very account that he has lowered himself to our level, lest in our flights above the reach of human understanding, and beyond the written word of Scripture, we should be tempted to indulge in vague cogitations and subtleties.”

In the chapter, “On the Divine Decrees," he says, “It is to be understood that God decreed nothing absolutely, which he left in the power of free agents: a doctrine which is shown by the whole canon of Scripture.

God had determined from all eternity, that man should so far be a free agent, that it remained with himself to decide whether he would stand or fall. . . . God of his wisdom determined to create men and angels reasonable beings and therefore free agents."

And in the chapter on Predestination: "Without searching deeper into this subject, let us be contented with only knowing, that God, out of his infinite mercy and grace

in Christ, has predestinated to salvation all who should believe."

On the Nature and Work of Christ, he says: "This point appears certain, notwithstanding the arguments of some of the moderns to the contrary, that the Son existed in the beginning, under the name of the logos or word, and was the first of the whole creation, by whom afterwards all other things were made both in heaven and earth." And again: "The mediatorial office of Christ is that whereby, at the special appointment of God the Father, he voluntarily performed, and continues to perform, on behalf of man, whatever is requisite for obtaining reconciliation with God, and eternal salvation. . . The exaltation of Christ is that by which, having triumphed over death, and laid aside the form of a servant, he was exalted by God the Father to a state of immortality and of the highest glory, partly by his own merits, partly by the gift of the Father, for the benefit of mankind; wherefore he rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God." Again: "As Christ emptied himself in both his natures, so both participate in his exaltation; his Godhead, by its restoration and manifestation; his manhood, by an accession of glory." And again: "The satisfaction of Christ is the complete reparation made by him, in his twofold capacity of God and Man, by the fulfilment of the law and payment of the required price for all mankind."

Dr. Johnson, whose injustice to the memory of Milton has been so frequently noticed, nowhere betrays a more total want of sympathy with his character, than in his remarks on his religious habits. "He did not associate himself," says the Doctor, "with any denomination of Protestants; we know rather what he was not, than what he He was not of the Church of Rome; he was not of the Church of England.

was.

"To be of no church, is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by

faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind, unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example. Milton, who appears to have had full conviction of the truth of Christianity, and to have regarded the Holy Scriptures with the profoundest veneration, to have been untainted by any heretical peculiarity of opinion, and to have lived in a confirmed belief of the immediate and occasional agency of Providence, yet grew old without any visible worship. In the distribution of his hours, there was no hour of prayer, either solitary or with his household; omitting public prayers, he omitted all.” *

Than these bold statements, nothing can be imagined more absurdly gratuitous. The assertion that Milton omitted periodical religious observances in his family, though not improbable, is altogether unauthorized; while the assertion that he neglected the duty of prayer, is, even on Johnson's showing of Milton's character, so inconsistent, and so utterly unfounded withal, as to be absolutely ridiculous.

It can hardly be imagined that the consideration of what posterity might think of his religious character ever crossed the mind of Milton. Still we find in the work before us a passage throwing some light on this matter, which deserves consideration :-

"Although,' he says, 'it is the duty of believers to join themselves, if possible, to a church duly constituted (Heb. v. 25), yet such as cannot do this conveniently, or with full satisfaction of conscience, are not to be considered as excluded from the blessing bestowed by God on the churches.'† This is an important passage, Dr. Sumner says, 'because it discloses Milton's real views upon a point on which his opinions have been represented in a more unfavourable light than they seem to have deserved.' Bishop Newton remarks, * Johnson's Lives of the Poets, vol. i. pp. 215, 216. + Idea Theologiæ, B. i. ch. 29.

, that in the latter part of his life, Milton was not a professed member of any particular sect of Christians, that he frequented no public worship, nor used any religious rite in his family. Whether so many different forms of worship as he had seen had made him indifferent to all forms; or whether he thought that all Christians had in some things corrupted the purity and simplicity of the Gospel; or whether he disliked their endless and uncharitable disputes, and that love of dominion and inclination to persecution, which he said was a piece of popery inseparable from all churches; or whether he believed that a man might be a good Christian without joining in any communion; or whether he did not look upon himself inspired, as wrapt up in God, and above all forms and ceremonies, it is not easy to determine: to his own Master he standeth or falleth: but if he was of any denomination, he was a sort of Quietist, and was full of the interior of religion, though he so little regarded the exterior.' It has been candidly and judiciously stated, in a note upon this passage, by Mr. Hawkins, to which Dr. Sumner refers, 'that the reproach which has been thrown upon Milton, of frequenting no place of public worship in his latter days, should be received, as Dr. Symmons observes, with some caution. His blindness and other infirmities might be in part his excuse; and it is certain that his daily employments were always ushered in by devout meditation and study of the Scriptures.' This observation, too, may be strengthened by Milton's expressly admitting, in the present treatise, the duty of uniting in practice external and internal worship, (B. ii. ch. 4.) though he also says, that with regard to the place of prayer, all are equally suitable,' as in his 'Paradise Lost' he makes a similar assertion (B. xi. 836)."

It is not surprising that Milton's religious character should have been thus misunderstood, and especially by Johnson. That the latter was a devout man, need not be questioned; but his religion seems to have been made up

in no small measure, of a gloomy and temperamental fear of God; while his theological views were singularly limited and crude. In the view of Milton, religion was an intimately and intensely personal thing: with Johnson it was corporative and national. Milton's religion was, except in its expansive tendencies, a solitary spirituality: Johnson's coarsely effloresced in material and obtrusive mechanism. In the realm of conscience, freedom was with Milton a sacred passion: subservience was with Johnson a stolid fate. No wonder that Milton was misunderstood, not only by Johnson, but by numerous biographers besides. It requires some sympathy with his sentiments, to enable us to perceive that his religion was the result of Divine grace, operating on a mind inspired with the highest order of genius, and endowed with the most elaborately cultivated taste. The former would lead him to eschew the coarse materialism of the then established churches; and the latter would incline him to withdraw, though in a spirit of respectful and affectionate consideration, from a community whose unseemly management of church affairs resulted from the combination of very slender qualifications, with the most fervid religious zeal, and an intense and most natural hatred of spiritual tyranny. Such a character was too vast to be weighed in any balances available to a mind like Johnson's. He had nothing to draw with, and the well was deep. His criticisms remind us of the satire of Bishop Watson on the geologists of his day, whom he compares to a gnat on the back of an elephant, pronouncing on his interior anatomy from the appearances it observed upon his hide.

To this I shall only add a single sentence, illustrative of Milton's views of ministerial qualifications. "Any believer," he says, "is competent to act as an ordinary minister, according as convenience may require; provided only he be endowed with the necessary gifts; these gifts constituting his mission."