bring in a dearth of spiritual food, robbing thereby the church of her dearest treasure, and sending herds of souls starveling to hell, while they feast and riot upon the labours of hireling curates, consuming and purloining even that which by their foundation is allowed, and left to the poor, and to reparations of the church. These are they who have bound the land with the sin of sacrilege, from which mortal engagement we shall never be free, till we have totally removed, with one labour, as one individual thing, prelacy and sacrilege. And herein will the king be a true defender of the faith, not by paring or lessening, but by distributing in due proportion the maintenance of the church, that all parts of the land may equally partake the plentiful and diligent preaching of the faith; the scandal of ceremonies thrown out that delude and circumvent the faith; and the usurpation of prelates laid level, who are in words the fathers, but in their deeds the oppugners of the faith. This is that which will best confirm him in that glorious title.

Thus ye have heard, readers, how many shifts and wiles the prelates have invented to save their ill-got booty. And if it be true, as in scripture it is foretold, that pride and covetousness are the sure marks of those false prophets which are to come; then boldly conclude these to be as great seducers as any of the latter times. For between this and the judgmentday do not look for any arch deceivers, who in spite of refor mation will use more craft, or less shame to defend their love of the world and their ambition, than these prelates have done. And if ye think that soundness of reason, or what force of argument soever, will bring them to an ingenuous silence, ye think that which will never be. But if ye take that course which Erasmus was wont to say Luther took against the pope and monks; if ye denounce war against their mitres and their bellies, ye shall soon discern that turban of pride, which they wear upon their heads, to be no helmet of salvation, but the mere metal and hornwork of papal jurisdiction; and that they have also this gift, like a certain kind of some that are possessed, to have their voice in their bellies, which being well-drained and taken down, their great oracle, which is only there, will soon be dumb; and the divine right of episcopacy, forthwith expiring, will put us no more to trouble with tedious antiquities and disputes.

OF

DIVORCE;

RESTORED TO THE GOOD OF BOTH SEXES, FROM THE BONDAGE OF CANON LAW, AND OTHER MISTAKES, TO THE TRUE MEANING OF SCRIPTURE IN THE LAW AND GOSPEL COMPARED. WHEREIN ALSO ARE SET DOWN THE BAD CONSEQUENCES OF ABOLISHING, OR CONDEMNING AS SIN, THAT WHICH THE LAW OF GOD ALLOWS, AND CHRIST ABOLISHED NOT. NOW THE SECOND TIME REVISED AND MUCH AUGMENTED. IN TWO BOOKS:

TO THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND WITH THE ASSEMBLY.

MATTH. Xiii. 52. "Every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a house, which bringeth out of his treasury things new and old."

PROV. Xviii. 13. "He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him."

EDITOR'S PRELIMINARY REMARKS

THIS great work on Divorce, with the three parasitical treatises, "Tetrachordon,' ""The Opinions of Martin Bucer," and "Colasterion," may be said nearly to exhaust all the philosophy and learning of the subject. Still it produced no sensible effect on the laws or manners of the country, the Roman catholic theory of marriage, namely, that it is a sacrament, having in reality prevailed ever since, though now at length repudiated by perhaps a majority of those who are able to think for themselves. Well, however, might Milton inveigh against custom. That which has been long established is usually invested by us with a sacred character; on which account we continue to submit to it, though conscious of the innumerable evils of which it may be the cause to us and others. In combating the received doctrines on divorce, he had to encounter more difficulties than at present beset us, since we generally content ourselves with investigating the reason of the matter, and trouble ourselves very little about authority. We have the advantage, however, of witnessing among our neighbours the working of a more natural theory of divorce, which, owing to the concurrence of a number of unfavourable circumstances, has not proved so satisfactory as mankind anticipated. In discussing the question therefore, we can expect to derive very little aid from experience, and must rely chiefly on reason and the nature of things, unless we will have recourse to that vast mass of evidence supplied by the history of marriage throughout Europe, with the incalculable evils which have arisen from its being considered indissoluble. The object of marriage must be admitted to be the happiness of those who enter into it, not their mere worldly prosperity, or the well ordering of their household and families, but, in a moral and intellectual sense, their own individual delight and tranquillity of mind; where this is not aimed at, marriage degenerates into a mere social connexion for economical purposes, and in which both husband and wife become subservient to the property they bring together, or may happen to amass. The man becomes the steward of the estate, the wife degenerates into a house keeper, and both plod on more or less comfortably together, according to the accidents of their temper, and the value they set on their worldly acquisitions. This, however, is not really marriage, but a partnership in business, of which the husband and wife constitute the firm, the former attending to the external relations of the

house, the latter to the internal. If they have children, these are by degrees taken into partnership, and the great work of money-making, or accumulation of property, proceeds pari pasu with the multiplication of the partners. In such industrial connexions divorce is seldom needed, money being the great ruling divinity of all the parties concerned. Love has no opportunity to intrude itself, to introduce disorder, or disturb their calculations. The husband may perhaps, in some few cases, and then rather in obedience to fashion than to feeling, encumber himself with a mistress; but she also must be economical; and if she does not add to the general stock, must be careful to diminish it as little as possible. Otherwise she is soon cashiered, Mammon not easily enduring the ostentatious intrusion of passion into his dominions. For this class of people facility of divorce is not much required. Love is most troublesome in the houses of the wealthy who have accumulated property, and have ceased to carry on the process, or have inherited it from their forefathers. To the same class also belong, not in property but in feeling, all men of intellectual pursuits, who, in cultivating their minds, cultivate also their passions, as the great active powers which put the microcosm in motion. Persons of this cast, corresponding with that of the Brahmans in Hindostan, seek for a large share of their happiness in the love of women, about which, for their greater satisfaction, they build up a whirl of metaphysical subtleties, refining, purifying, and elevating their favourite passion till it is lost too frequently in the clouds. With them marriage becomes a very different contract from what it is among the under classes. Men of speculative minds have always sought to combine the celestial with the terrestrial sphere; and knowing that the apogeum of the latter is love, they have imagined that they should find in marriage the ultimate development of their natures, and a happiness not altogether appertaining to earth: but a thousand causes concur to obstruct the designs of man in the construction of this moral Babel: neither materially nor spiritually can we escape from the conditions of our existence. The marriage even of the wisest men is found to be a lottery, and the union of suitable persons is consequently not the rule, but the exception. When men, therefore, seek for all their happiness in marriage, and are disappointed, not through the imperfection of the institution itself, but through their own haste, ignorance, or bad fortune, it seems perfectly consistent with every consideration of justice and equity that they should be allowed to repair their mistake or misfortune through the instrumentality of divorce. Nor let it be supposed that women are less interested in this matter than men, since experience shews that unfortunate marriages are productive, if possible, of more misery to them than to their husbands, in proportion as they have fewer external resources, a much more limited sympathy, and have their conduct and demeanour subjected to an infinitely severer scrutiny. In these matters of marriage and divorce, the laws should, as far as possible, place both sexes on terms of perfect equality; or, rather, should shew more favour to women, to make amends for the other disadvantages to which they are exposed by the constitution of society. In enacting a law of divorce, care should be taken to guard against the effects of temporary caprice. But whenever it clearly appears that man and wife can no longer live together in peace and harmony, their separation would be far more beneficial to themselves, and favourable to morals, than their compulsory union. It is to be regretted that Milton's language should now, in course of time, have

come to appear at first sight a little antiquated, which may discourage many from the study of this interesting and extraordinary work, in which nearly every question connected with marriage and divorce is discussed with surprising eloquence, learning, and freedom. To his own contemporaries his expressions, no doubt, appeared appropriate and perspicuous, though they now often seem vague and ill-selected, through the inevitable revolutions of language, which have stripped words of their old significations to attach to them others altogether new. Nevertheless, a moderate supply of patience will enable us to reconcile ourselves to his diction, and to that peremptory style of argumentation, which in an age of political excitement and fierce party struggles is naturally adopted by all earnest and energetic writers. In scriptural interpretation, he pushes the protestant licence to the utmost, arrays text against text, gospel against law, and law against gospel, and ultimately decides in conformity with the suggestions of reason. This in a person so strict and pious, is really a matter of astonishment. No man was ever more religious than Milton, but his religion was a pure transcendental philosophy, which soared above texts and formularies, and rested ultimately on the eternal relations subsisting between God and his creatures. In other respects these works on divorce are full of beauty, of poetical descriptions of love, of philosophical investigations, of original ideas and images. The whole is pervaded and adorned by an enthusiastic spirit of poetry which constitutes in him the vitality of style. All therefore who can tolerate a little quaintness and plain speaking, and who are not averse from being taught by a somewhat dogmatic instructor, can read with pleasure Milton's speculations on divorce, which are full of sound wisdom, which may serve to enlighten both our legislators and philosophers, if they will be modest enough to listen and learn.

TO THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND, WITH THE ASSEMBLY, If it were seriously asked, (and it would be no untimely question,) renowned parliament, select assembly! who of all teachers and masters, that have ever taught, hath drawn the most disciples after him, both in religion and in manners? it might be not untruly answered, custom. Though virtue be commended for the most persuasive in her theory, and conscience in the plain demonstration of the spirit finds most evincing; yet whether it be the secret of divine will, or the original blindness we are born in, so it happens for the most part that custom still is silently received for the best instructor. Except it be, because her method is so glib and easy, in some manner like to that vision of Ezekiel rolling up her sudden book of implicit knowledge, for him that will to take and swallow down at pleasure; which proving but of bad nourishment in the concoction, as it was heedless in the devouring, puffs up unhealthily a certain big face of pretended learning, mistaken among credulous men for the wholesome

habit of soundness and good constitution, but is indeed no other than that swoln visit of counterfeit knowledge and literature, which not only in private mars our education, but also in public is the common climber into every chair, where either religion is preached, or law reported; filling each estate of life and profession with abject and servile principles, depressing the high and heaven-born spirit of man, far beneath the condition wherein either God created him, or sin hath sunk him. To pursue the allegory, custom being but a mere face, as echo is a mere voice, rests not in her unaccomplishment, until by secret inclination she accorporate herself with error, who being a blind and serpentine body without a head, willingly accepts what he wants, and supplies what her incompleteness went seeking. Hence it is, that error supports custom, custom countenances error; and these two between them would persecute and chase away all truth and solid wisdom out of human life, were it not that God, rather than man, once in many ages calls together the prudent and religious counsels of men, deputed to repress the incroachments, and to work off the inveterate blots and obscurities wrought upon our minds by the subtle insinuating of error and custom; who, with the numerous and vulgar train of their followers, make it their chief design to envy and cry. down the industry of free reasoning, under the terms of humour and innovation; as if the womb of teeming truth were to be closed up, if she presume to bring forth aught that sorts not with their unchewed notions and suppositions. Against which notorious injury and abuse of man's free soul, to testify and oppose the utmost that study and true labour can attain, heretofore the incitement of men reputed grave hath led me among others; and now the duty and the right of an instructed Christian calls me through the chance of good or evil report, to be the sole advocate of a discountenanced truth: a high enterprise, lords and commons! a high enterprise and a hard, and such as every seventh son of a seventh son does not venture on. Nor have I amidst the clamour of so much envy and impertinence whither to appeal, but to the concourse of so much piety and wisdom here assembled. Bringing in my hands an ancient and most necessary, most charitable, and yet most injured statute of Moses: not repealed ever by him who only had the authority, but