And now we know, O Thou our most certain hope and defence, that Thine enemies have been consulting all the sorceries of the great whore, and have joined their plots with that sad intelligencing* tyrant that mischiefs the world with his mines of Ophir, and lies thirsting to revenge his naval ruins that have larded† our seas: but let them all take counsel together, and let it come to naught; let them decree, and do Thou cancel it; let them gather thémselves, and be scattered: let them embattle themselves, and be broken; let them embattle, and be broken, for Thou art with us

!

Then, amidst the hymns and hallelujahs of saints, some one may perhaps be heard offering at high strains in new and lofty measures, to sing and celebrate Thy divine mercies and marvellous judgments in this land throughout all ages;‡ whereby this great and warlike nation, instructed and inured to the fervent and continual practice of truth and righteousness, and casting far from her the rags of her old vices, may press on hard to that high and happy emulation to be found the soberest, wisest, and most Christian people of that day, when Thou, the Eternal and shortly-expected King, shalt open the clouds to judge the several kingdoms of the world, and distributing national honours and rewards to religious and just commonwealths, shalt put an end to all earthly tyrannies, proclaiming Thy universal and mild monarchy through heaven and earth; where they undoubtedly, that by their labours, counsels, and prayers, have been earnest for the common good of religion and their country, shall receive, above the inferior orders of the blessed, the regal addition of principalities, legions, and thrones into their glorious titles, and in supereminence of beatific vision, progressing the dateless and irrevoluble circle of eternity, shall

* Gaining intelligence by the aid of spies. + Covered with fatness. Milton originally designed to compose a national epic. He proceeded so far as to draw up a plan and collect materials. See further allusion to this scheme, p. 43.

DENUNCIATION OF TYRANTS AND HYPOCRITES.

29

clasp inseparable hands with joy and bliss, in overmeasure for ever.

But they contrary, that by the impairing and diminution of the true faith, the distresses and servitude of their country, aspire to high dignity, rule and promotion here, after a shameful end in this life (which God grant them), shall be thrown down eternally into the darkest and deepest gulf of hell, where, under the despiteful control, the trample and spurn of all the other damned, that in the anguish of their torture, shall have no other ease than to exercise a raving and bestial tyranny over them as their slaves and negroes, they shall remain in that plight for ever, the basest, the lowermost, the most dejected, most underfoot, and downtrodden vassals of perdition.

OF

PRELATICAL EPISCOPACY;

AND WHETHER IT MAY BE DEDUCED FROM THE APOSTOLIC TIMES, BY VIRTUE OF THOSE TESTIMONIES WHICH ARE ALLEGED TO THAT PURPOSE

IN SOME LATE TREATISES.

[MILTON's treatise on the Reformation in England was replied to by Bishop Hall, in An Humble Remonstrance to the High Court of Parliament: and by Archbishop Usher, in the Apostolical Institution of Episcopacy. Milton's rejoinder was soon ready, and in the same year (1641) he published his Prelatical Episcopacy and Reason of Church Government urged against Prelacy. In erudition he showed himself a match for Usher, and in wit far more than a match for Hall. The satires of the latter do not deserve the epithet of "toothless," which Milton applied to them, except when compared with the biting invective of Milton himself. In this quality our great epic poet leaves all his assailants far behind.

The treatise on Prelatical Episcopacy is closely argued, and is replete with learning; but it seldom rises to those heights of eloquence which characterise his other productions. The reason for this is obvious. It was a scholarly discussion of the question at issue with an opponent whose scholarship was scarcely inferior to his own. He therefore confines himself closely to the matter in hand. He first shows how small an amount of credit is due to the heterogeneous heap of writers who pass under the name of the Fathers, and then proceeds to examine in detail the testimony of Ignatius, Polycarp, Polycrates, Irenæus, Tertullian, and Clemens Alexandrinus, showing that they were inconsistent with each other, and unable to establish the point contended for. He concludes the tractate by insisting that since there are but two ecclesiastical orders (bishops and deacons) mentioned in the Gospel, we need not tremble at the array of Patristie authorities brought against us. "This shall be our righteousness, our ample warrant, and strong assurance, both now and at the last day, never to be ashamed of, against all the heaped names of angels and martyrs, councils and fathers, urged upon us, if we have given

EPISCOPACY WITHOUT DIVINE WARRANT.

31

ourselves up to be taught by the pure and loving precept of God's Word only; which without more additions, nay, with a forbidding of them, hath within itself the promise of eternal life, the end of all our wearisome labours, and all our sustaining hopes."]

NO DIVINE AUTHORITY FOR EPISCOPACY.

EPISCOPACY, as it is taken for an order in the church above a presbyter, or, as we commonly name him, the minister of a congregation, is either of divine constitution or of human. If only of human, we have the same human privilege that all men have ever had since Adam, being born free, and in the mistress island of all the British, to retain this episcopacy, or to remove it, consulting with our own occasions and conveniences, and for the prevention of our own dangers and disquiets, in what best manner we can devise, without running at a loss, as we must needs in those stale and useless records of either uncertain or unsound antiquity; which, if we hold fast to the grounds of the reformed church, can neither skill of us, nor we of it, so oft as it would lead us to the broken reed of tradition. If it be of divine constitution, to satisfy us fully in that, the Scripture only is able, it being the only book left us of divine authority, not in anything more divine than in the allsufficiency it hath to furnish us, as with all other spiritual knowledge, so with this in particular, setting out to us a perfect man of God, accomplished to all the good works of his charge: through all which book can be nowhere, either by plain text or solid reasoning, found any difference between a bishop and a presbyter, save that they be two names to signify the same order. Notwithstanding this clearness, and that by all evidence of argument, Timothy and Titus (whom our prelates claim to imitate only in the controlling part of their office) had rather the vicegerency of an apostleship committed to them, than the ordinary charge of a bishopric, as being men of an extraordinary calling; yet to verify that which St. Paul foretold of succeeding times, when men

began to have itching ears, then not contented with the plentiful and wholesome fountains of the Gospel, they began after their own lusts to heap to themselves teachers, and as if the divine Scripture wanted a supplement, and were to be eked out, they cannot think any doubt resolved, and any doctrine confirmed, unless they run to that indigested heap and fry of authors which they call antiquity. Whatsoever time, or the heedless hand of blind chance, hath drawn down from of old to this present, in her huge drag-net, whether fish or sea-weed, shells or shrubs, unpicked, unchosen, those are the fathers. Seeing, therefore, some men, deeply conversant in books, have had so little care of late to give the world a better account of their reading, than by divulging needless tractates stuffed with specious names of Ignatius and Polycarpus ; with fragments of old martyrologies and legends, to distract and stagger the multitude of credulous readers, and mislead them from their strong guards and places of safety, under the tuition of holy writ; it came into my thoughts to persuade myself, setting all distances and nice respects aside, that I could do religion and my country no better service for the time, than doing my utmost endeavour to recall the people of God from this vain foraging after straw, and to reduce them to their firm stations under the standard of the Gospel; by making appear to them, first the insufficiency, next the inconveniency, and lastly the impiety of these gay testimonies, that their great doctors would bring them to dote on.

THE EPISTLES OF IGNATIUS.

Had God ever intended that we should have sought any part of useful instruction from Ignatius, doubtless He would not have so ill provided for our knowledge, as to send him to our hands in this broken and disjointed plight; and if He intended no such thing, we do injuriously in thinking to taste better the pure evangelic manna, by seasoning our mouths with the tainted scraps and fragments of an unknown