luiftoryofthe Puritans, examin'd. 3 8 r England, and many of them Perfons who had ` openly preach'd Rebellion, and had excited the People to take up Arms againft him, and fo were not likely to be proper Inftruments of Peace in ' Church or State.' And * Lord Clarendon's; That of about one hundred and twenty, of which that great Affemby did confift, though by the Recommendation of two or three Mein- ` hers of the Houle of Commons, whom they ' would not willingly difpleafe, a few reverend and worthy Men were inferted ; yet of the whole Number there was not above twenty who were not declared Enemies to the Docarine and Dif- cipline of the Church; forne of them infamous in their Lives and Converfations, and moil of them of mean Parts in Learning, if not of scandalous Ignorance, and of no other Reputation, than Ma- lice to the Church of England.' But left thefe fhould be look'd upon as Characters from preju- diced Perlons, I delire he will take a Charadter of them from the famous Milton, whom he may poffibly efteern lets prejudiced. .... ' And if the State (fags he) were in this plight, Religion was not in much better; to reform which, a ' certain number of Divines were called, neither ` chofen by any Rule or Cuftom Ecciefiaftical, Hiftory of the Rebellion, Vol. L p. 4.14. 1- Milton's Character of the Long Pay liarnent, and Afrembly of Divines, printed 1621. p. f. The compound or complicated Mr. John Richardfon, (to ufe their own Words, Life of Mil- ton, p. 14e. publifhed 17J4.) Father and Son, (' which coin- ' pound Man, as they tell us, might probably produce what no Jingle Man could,') in their late Life of Milton, prefixed to their explanatory Notes, and Remarks on Milto's Paradife loft, p. 47. inform us, ' That this Trae was printed 't i. and was part of his Hiftory of England, and expunge(' 't being a fort of Digreffion, and to avoid .riving offence to a Party quire fubdued, and whole Faults Government was then ' wilting to have forgotten.' And it is Paid to have been part of his Hiffory of Britain, in the Preface to the Trae. 6 nor
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