Trade another time, I Thank him, for it hath given Me an Apt Occafion to Acknowledge Publickly with all Gratefull Minde, that more then Ordinary Favour and Refpect which I found above Any of my Equals at the hands of thofe Curteous and Learned Men, the Fellowes of that Colledge wherein I spent fome Yeares: who at my Parting, after I had taken two Degrees, as the manner is, fignifi'd many Ways, how much better it would Content Them that I would Stay; as by many Letters full of Kindneffe and Loving Refpect, both Before That time and Long After, I was Affur'd of their Singular good Affection towards Me.

I beg that none will interpret it Invidiously that this Man has Oblig'd me to fay of My Self More than I would have faid. for it is abfolutely Neceffary, and That, for more Reajons than One. First, That So many Good and Learned Men who now Read thefe my Writings. in all our Neighb'ring Nations may not be induc'd by His flanders to Repent themselves of the Good Will which I am Sure they bear me, but that they may Still be perfuaded that I am not One who Stains his Honeft Writings with Dif honest Manners, nor What He hath Spoken as a Freeman with Actions which denote a Slave; and that My Life, by God's Goodness has ever been Far remote from Turpitude and Crime; Then, that Thofe Illuftrious and truely Laudable Men whom I have Undertaken to Praise may Know, That I efteem Nothing more Shame

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full than to come to Their Praifes, My Self Vile, and Only worthy of Blame. Laftly, let the People of England know, whom either my Fate, or Duty, Certainly their Own Vertue has oblig'd Me to Defend, that if I have Liv'd Always with Modefty and Honour, My Defence of Them, I dont know whether an Honour and an Ornament, Certainly Shall Not be a Shame or Reproach to Them. Who then I am, and Whence, Iwill Now tell you- -he goes on to give a Hiftory of his Life. Def. 2da p. 95. against Alexander Morus. Tol.

Let us Now proceed to the Particular Vindications of himself in Anfwer to his Calumniating Enemies. p. 178. Tol. That Care was Ever had of Me, with my Earliest Capacity, not to be Negligently train'd in the Precepts of Chriftian Religion: This that I have hitherto related hath been to show that though Christianity had bin but Slightly taught Me, yet a certain Referv'dnesse of Natural Difpofition, and Moral Difcipline learnt out of the Nobleft Philofophy was Enough to keep Me in Difdain of Farre Leffe Incontinences than This of the Bordello.- -Nor did I Slumber over That place, expreffing fuch High Rewards of Ever accompanying the Lamb, with thofe Celeftial Songs, to Others Inapprehenfible, but Not to Those who were not Defil'd with Women, which doubtless Meanes Fornication, for Marriage muft not be calld a Defilement. Thus large I have purposely bin, that if I have bin Juftly Taxt

with This Crime it may come upon me after all this Confeffion with a Tenne-fold Shame: but if I have hitherto defer'd no fuchOpprobrious word, or Sufpicion, I may hereby Ingage my Selfe now Openly to the faithfull Obfervation of what I have profeft. Again in the fame Difcourfe (his Apol. for Smectymnuus.) p. 175. Thofe Morning haunts are where they Should be, at Home; not Sleeping, or Concocting the Surfeits of an Irregular Feaft, but Up, and Stirring, in Winter Often before the Sound of any Bell awakens Men to Labour or Devotion, in Summer as Oft as the Bird that First Roufes, or not Much Tardyer, to Read Good Authors, or caufe them to be Read, till the Attention be Weary, or the Memory have its full Fraught: Then with Ufefull, and Generous Labors Preferving the Body's Health and Hardiness, to render a Lightfom, Clear, and not a Lumpish Obedience to the Mind for the Caufe of Religion and our Country's Liberty when it fhall require Firm Hearts in Sound Bodies to Stand, and Cover their Stations, rather than fee the Ruin of our Proteftation and the inforcement of a Slavish Life. and a while after I was confirm'd in the Opinion that He who would not be fruftrated of his hope to write Well hereafter in Laudable things ought Himfelf to be a true Poem, that is, a Compofition and Pattern of the Beft and Honourableft things, not prefuming to Sing the High Praifes of Heroic Men, or Famous Cities unless he has in Himself the Experience, and the Practice of

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all that is Praife-worthy. Thefe Reafonings, together with a certain Nicenefs of Nature, an Honeft Haughtynefs and Self-Esteem, either of what I Was, or what I Might be, (which let Envy call Pride) and Laftly, a Becoming Modefty, all Uniting the Supply of their Natural Aid together, kept me ftill above thofe Low Defcents of Mind, beneath Which He must Deject and Plunge himself that can agree to Salable and Unlawfull Proftitutions.

if I have Accumulated Paffages of This Kind it has not been Meerly to Delineate the Mind of Milton, or to Vindicate His Character, it has been done with Yet a Nobler and a More Extenfive View, it has been done not without Hopes that Others may be Excited to be Enamour'd, as Hee, with the Beauty of Holinefs. but on This Occafion alfo See this Eloquent Man faying to You as to the late Lord Ranelagh when at the University, and in Some Measure under His Care. he Thus, writes to Him. (See Tol. in Milton's Life, p. 124.) Learn Thou from thy Childhood to Difcern and Judge of Great Examples, not from Violence and Force [from the Cafars and Alexanders] but by Justice and Temperance.

in his Reafon of Church-Government (written when he was between 30 and 40) B. II. Chap. 3. he gives a fine Image of a Pious and Vertuous Mind, which alfo Attend to; it Concerns Us All. But He that holds himself in Reverence and due Efteem, both for the Dig

nity of God's Image upon him, and for the Price of his Redemption, which he thinks is Vifibly markt upon his Forehead, accounts himJelf both a Fit Perfon to do the Nobleft and Goodlieft Deeds, and Much better worth than to Deject and Defile with Such a Debafement and Such a Pollution as Sin is, Himfelf fo highly Ranfom'd and Enobled to a New Friendship and Filial Relation with God. Nor can be fear fo much the Offence and Reproach of Others, as be dreads, and would blush at the Reflection of his Own Severe and Modeft Eye upon Himself, if it should fee him Doing, or Imagining that which is Sinful, though in the Deepest Secrecy.

though 'tis Somwhat Long, you will Thank me for Subjoyning a Paffage, which could not come but from a Mind truly Chriftian, and thePen of One who had the Soul of an Ancient Philofopher and Poet; 'tis a noble Instance of his good Heart, particularly in That Branch of True Philofophy, the Submitting Chearfully to the Divine Will, and making the Right Ufe of Afflictions, and amongst Others, of the Malice and Wickedness" of Men. 'tis in the Second Defence pro Pop. Angl. and is a Sort of a Collection of what has been Seen in the Several Fine Paffages I have given. Thus in English.

As for what relates to Me, I call Thee, O God! to Witness, Thee the Searcher of my most Inward Mind, and of all my Thoughts, that I am Confcious to My felf of Nothing (though I have,

as