as much as was in Me, Often and Seriously Thought This with My Self, and Sifted all the moft Private Paffages of my Life) of Nothing, either of Late, or Long Since Committed, whofe Hainoufness might defervedly draw on me This Calamity. [his Blindness] And as for what I have Written at any Time (fince the Royalifts pretend I fuffer This as a Judgment, and triumph on that Account) I in like Manner call God to Witness, that I have never Written any thing on that Subject, that I was not Then Perfuaded was, and am Now Perfuaded is Acceptable to God; And alfo that So I did, not Mov'd by any Ambition, Gain, or Glory, but from a Sence Alone of my Duty, of what was Honeft, and of Piety to my Country; and that I did it too, not only to Reftore the Liberty of the State, but also chiefly to recover that of the Church, Infomuch that when It was Enjoyn'd Me by the Publick Voice of my Country to Anfer that Defence of the King, and Í at the fame time Labour'd under a very Ill State of Health, and withal was upon the Point of Loofing one of my Eyes; and my Phyficians affur'd Me peremptorily, that if I undertook this Task, I muft unavoidably loofe Both in a little Time; Not at all Difmay'd by their Sentence, I thought I Heard the Voice, not of a Phifician, no nor of Epidaurian Æfculapius himfelf from his Secret Oracle, but that of Some more Divine Monitor Within; That I had Now Two Lots at the fame time propos'd to Me by

a

a certain fatal Neceffity of the Divine Pleafure, Here Blindness, There My Duty; so that I muft either voluntarily refign my Sight, or Defert what God Impos'd upon me. Wherefore I confider'd with my Self, that Many had bought a Leffer Good with a Greater Lofs, Glory with Death; To Me on the contrary, there was propos'd a Greater Good for a Leffer Lofs; An Opportunity of Acheiving the most noble and Ufefull Duty, with the bare Lofs of my Eyes; Which Duty, as it is more Solid in it felf than any Glory, fo it ought fure to be far more Defirable and Preferable. I determin'd then to make Ufe of the fhort Remains of Light I had Decree'd My Self, as much as might be for the Publick Profit. You fee what I Chofe, what I Rejected, and by what Reafon induc'd. Let then those that Calumniate me with Divine Judgements ceafe to Revile, and to Reproach me with their own Dreams; Let them Know that I neither am Sorry for, nor Repent me of my Lot; that I remain Unmov'd and Steddy in my Purpose; That I neither Feel God Almighty Angry, nor Is He, but rather in the Greatest things I experience his Clemency and Fatherly Goodness towards Me; but in Nothing more than in This, that from his Confirmations and Comfortings I Chearfully acquiefce in his Divine Will, thinking oftner what He hath Given Me, than what He hath Denied Me; and lastly, that I would not Exchange for any other of his greateft Benefits, the Confcicufness of this Action

that

that they Reproach Me with, nor Lay down the Remembrance of it, which is a perpetual Fund to Me of Tranquillity and Joy. To End, As for my Blindness, I prefer It, if I Muft have One, either to that of Salmafius, or Your's. Your's is Sunk into your Deepest Senfes, Blinding your Minds, fo that You can See nothing that is Sound and Solid; Mine, Takes from Me only the Colour and Surface of Things, but does Not Take away from the Mind's Contemplation, What is in Thofe Things of True and Conftant. Moreover, how many Things are there which I would Not See? How many which I can be Debar'd the Sight of without Repining? How Few Left which I Much Defire to See? But neither am I Disheartend that I am Now become the Companion of the Blind, of the Afflicted, of Thofe that Sorrow, and of the Weak; Since I Comfort my Self with the Hope, that Thefe Things do, as it were, make Me Belong ftill more to the Mercy and Protection of the Supream Father. There is, according to the Apoftle, a Way through Weakness to the greatest Strength; Let me be the Moft Weak, Provided that in my Weakness that Immortal and Better Strength Exert it Self with more Efficacy; Provided that in my Darkness the Light of the Face of God Shine the Clearer; So fhall I prove at the fame time the Moft Weak and the Moft Strong; Dark-Blind and at the fame time ClearSighted; O Let Me be Confummate in this Weaknefs! in This, Perfected! Let Me be Thus End

lighten'd

lighten'd in This Darkness! And fure, We that are Blind are not the Laft Care of God, who hath been in This Clement above All, and Bountifull to Us, that He will have Us See Nothing but Himself. Vile Men that Mock Us! Injure Us! and that endeavour to raise us Enemies! The high Difpenfation of God, his Favour hath given Us a Protection from the Injuries of Men, and render'd Us allmoft Sacred; Nor doth He indeed feem to have brought this Darkness upon Us, fo much by the Dimness of our Eyes; as by the Shadow of his Protecting Wings. To This I Impute, that my Friends are more Ready and Officious to Serve Me than Before, and more frequently Vifit Me, fome of which are not lefs True and Faithfull than thofe of Old, Pylades and Thefeus: For They do not Think that by This Accident I am become altogether Nothing, or that the only Worth of an Honeft and Upright Man is plac'd in his Eyes. Far from it, the Greatest Men in the Commonwealth do not Defert Me, fince, if My Eyes have Deferted Me, it hath not been for Idly Withering in Laziness, but in Facing the Greatest Dangers, with Activity, and among the First, for Liberty; But, Reflecting on Humane Sort, they Now Favour Me, and Spare Me as One that hath Finish'd bis Warfare, Indulging Me Now, and Granting Me Vacation and Leifure. If I have any Trophys, they Take them not down; Publick Office, they do not Deprive Me of it; If Profit from Thence, They do not Leffen it, and although nat equally

equally Ufefull to Them Now, yet they continue no lejs Bountifull to Me; Doing Me that fame Honour as theAthenians of Old did to Thofe that they Decreed fhould be Kept at the Publick Expenfe.

Whilft then I can thus Comfort my Self, both toward God and towards Man, for my Blindnefs, for Eyes that have been Lay'd Down in the Caufe of What is Honeft, Let None Mourn for Them, or Pity Me; Far be it also that I fhould Grive for Them My Self, or that I fhould want Resentment to Defpife with Eafe Such as Rebuke my Darkness, or Charity, with more Eafe, to Forgive Them.

I will deny Self the Pleafure of Tranferibing More to This Purpose. All his Writings have Interfperft an Odour of Sanctity, not that Cant which was the Character and the Blemish of the Times in which he Liv'd, but a Manly Eloquence flowing from a Heart in which thone the Divine Grace. 'tis seen Breaking forth in his most Furious Disputes, 'tis feen even There; as I once faw the Sunbeams Wreathing amongst the Flames and Smoak and Horror of a Houfe on Fire; but his Other Works, if partly mistaken, are Fragrant with Piety and Vertue; Above All, Paradife Loft is a Spring of Fragrance; That from End to End

Impurpled with Celeftial Rofes fmiles.

I know not how to Conclude my Account of Milton's Religion better than by recommending you to That given by Himself of

d 2

Adam's