Lords no sooner received this protest, (which was, in effect, an effort to dissolve or suspend the parliament,) than they demanded a conference with the Commons, who, having taken it into consideration, resolved to accuse the bishops of high treason, for having attempted to subvert the fundamental laws and the very essence of parliament. This resolution was immediately executed, and the twelve bishops were committed to prison.

The king passed the bill to exclude the bishops from their seats it parliament; soon after, the two houses, in 1643, signed "the Solemn League and Covenant," which bound the two kingdoms to the extirpation of po-pery and prelacy.*-(Hume's History, vol. vii.)

From this period may be dated the establishment, increase, and prosperity of the Independent and Baptist Churches.†

Considering how much MILTON had contributed towards this consummation-the abolition of Diocesan Episcopacy -the event of "the extirpation of prelacy" must have afforded him exuberant joy; because, with his senti

*That the proceedings of the Parliament, in putting out the bishops, gave great pleasure to the country, is evident from many circumstances; one may be mentioned:-In the Journal of the House of Lords, 22d April, 1642, there is an entry from "the knights, &c. &c. of the county of Cornwall," in which it is said, "That they heartily praise God, and thank you, for your happy conjunction with the House of Commons, in casting out bishops for sitting and voting among you,"

+ The Baptists, who held the principles afterwards called Calvinistic, and had, from the time of Wickliffe, been mixed up with the Lollards and Sacramentarians, formed themselves, in the year 1633, into a separate church. Their beginning was very small; but they soon abundantly increased. Mr. William Kiffin, who joined them in 1638, and who became, from his character and influence, the father of the denomination, gives the following simple account of their origin. "There was a congregation of Protestant dissenters of the Independent persuasion in London, gathered in the year 1616, of which Mr. Henry Jacob was their first pastor; and after

ments, as expressed in his several treatises against the prelates, he considered, as the parliament appears to have done, that popery and prelacy were identical, or at least so closely united, that in death they could not be divided! The pious bishop, Joseph Hall, who was one of the protestors, calls the treatment they received from the Commons “hard measure!" It might have been so to him and a few others, who were devoted Christian ministers of the Gospel; but as to most of them, they were any thing rather than Christian bishops!-Cruel persecutors of the godly dissenters, and base sycophants to the king and his oppressive ministers; and who, like Ahab, as to the votes which they gave in parliament, "sold themselves to work iniquity;" the non-resisting and passive obedient tools of arbitrary power; the ready helpers to execute any oppressive measures to grind the people to powder; mean satellites and cringing hypocrites to those

him succeeded Mr. John Lathrop, who was their minister in 1633. In this society several persons, finding that the congregation kept not to its first principles of separation; and being also convinced that baptism was not to be administered to infants, but to such as professed faith in Christ, desired that they might be dismissed from that communion, and allowed to form a distinct congregation, in such order as was most agreeable to their own sentiments.

"The church considering they were now grown very numerous, and so more than could in those times of persecution conveniently meet together; and believing also that those persons acted from a principle of conscience, and not from obstinacy, agreed to allow them the liberty they desired, and that they should be constituted a distinct church; which was performed Sept. 12, 1633. And as they believed that baptism was not rightly administered to infants, so they looked upon the baptism which they had at that age as invalid, whereupon most all of them received a NEW BAPTISM, [by being immersed in water on a personal profession of repentance and faith.] Their minister was Mr. JOHN SPILSBURY. What number there were is uncertain, because in the mentioning of about twenty men and women, it is added, 'with divers of others.'"-Hist. of Eng. Bap. vol. 1.. p. 138.-1811.

who were above them; haughty tyrants, and bloody oppressors to those whom they could ensnare by their et cetara oath, or get within the purlieus of the High Commission Court? And was it wonderful that every British heart, and especially the hearts of Protestant dissenters, rejoiced when these tyrants, who had oppressed them for nearly a century, fell into disgrace, and were pronounced, as to their temporal and spiritual dignity, to be public nuisances? However "hard the measure, no impartial and honest Briton but what will say that it was strictly just.. And what English heart now, but will raise a prayer to God-who hears the prayer of the humble, and who is always ready to help the cppressed, and to confound the oppressor-" So let all thine enemies perish, oh, God! but let them that love thee be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might!" Judges, v. 31.

We are now arrived at the year 1644, and find our hero again employed as the defender of the liberties of his countrymen. The work which he published he entitled, "Areopagitica, or an Oration to the Parliament of England for the Liberty of unlicensed Printing." It is not improbable but the following circumstances, recorded in the Journals of the House of Lords for 1644, produced that extraordinary display of mind. "Ordered, that the gentleman-usher attending this house, shall repair to the Lord Mayor of London, and the master and wardens of the Stationers' Company, to let them know, that this House expects a speedy account of them, what they have done in finding out the author, printer, or publisher of the scandalous libel."

"The wardens of the Stationers' Company gave the house an account, "that they had used their best endeav ours to find out the printer and author of the scandalous libel; but they cannot yet make any discovery thereof,

the letter being so common a letter;' and further complained of the frequent printing of scandalous books, by divers, as Hezekia Woodward and JOHN MILTON."

Hereupon it is ordered, that it be referred to Mr. Justice Bacon, to examine the said Woodward and MILTON, and such others as the master and wardens of the Stationers' Company shall give information of concerning the printing of books and pamphlets; and to examine also. what they know concerning the libel, who was the author, printer and publisher of it. And the gentleman-usher shall attach the parties, and bring them before the judges; and the Stationers are to be present at their examination, and give evidence against them."

On June 31, "Mr. Justice Bacon informed the house of some paper which Ezeckiell Woodward confessed he made. Hereupon it is ordered he shall be released, giving his own bond to appear before this house when he shall be summoned." It does not appear that MILTON

was brought up.

The length to which the Presbyterians carried their zeal to suppress libels, may be judged of from the following entry in the Journals, the 12th of July, 1644. "A book entitled Comfort for Believers about their Sins and Troubles, by John Archer, M. A. sometime preacher at Lombard-street.' The assembly denounced it as blasphemous; and the Lords ordered it to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman, and all the copies of it to be called in.

It was necessary, that before any book could be printed, it should receive the imprimatur of some person authorised by the government; and subject of course to be deprived, by the same power, of any emolument which he might derive from his office. The object proposed by MILTON was, to procure the most entire liberty of the

press, subject to a liability to prosecution, should that lib. erty be employed for licentious or injurious practices, such as blasphemy, or libel, or immorality; and if the printer or publisher were found guilty, to be punished with a specified fine.

In this his immortal work, even more so than by his exposures of prelatical rank in the church, he greatly served the cause of rational, restrained liberty: because, if the press be free, we dare bishops, or any others, to be oppressive. In those he lops off the branches, and removes the excrescences of arbitrary power; but in this he lays the axe to the root of the tree :-in those he corrected the diseases of the body politic; in this he infuses new blood into the system, by which he at once hurled oppression to the ground, and introduced the means of producing political strength and beauty, and preserving civil and religious life and liberty. It is in this work that he introduces Galileo, and his hard and cruel fate. He says: "There it was, [Italy] that I found and visited the famous GALILEO, grown old a prisoner to the Inquisition, for thinking in astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan and Dominican licencers thought. And though I knew that England was then groaning loudest under the prelatical yoke, nevertheless I took it for a pledge of future happiness, that other nations were so persuaded of her liberty. Yet was it beyond my hope, that those worthies who were then breathing in her air, should be her leaders to such a deliverance as shall never be forgotten by any revolution of time that this world hath to finish."

He first proves that the ancient Republics of Greece and Italy never prohibited any but immoral, defamatory, or atheistical publications. Nor did they judge of those crimes, by inferences or inuendoes: as, for instance, they never suppressed the writings of the Epicureans, which