Catalogue Entry: THEM00299

Front Matter (Dedication, Preliminary Observations, Table of Contents)

Author: John Milton

Source: A Treatise on Christian Doctrine, Compiled from the Holy Scriptures Alone, vol. 1 (Boston: 1825).

[Normalized Text] [Diplomatic Text]

[1]

The Orders of the Council of State during the Interregnum, brought to light and arranged by the industry of Mr. Lemon, form one of the most interesting series of documents relative to English History at present in existence. They contain the daily transactions of the executive government in England from 1648-9 to September 1658, and are particularly valuable from the period of the dissolution of the Long Parliament in 1653, to the death of Cromwell in September 1658; as during the greater part of that time the Council of State, under the Protector, combined both the executive and legislative functions of government, and as these books are the authentic, but hitherto unknown records of their daily proceedings. It is greatly to be desired that the attention of the Record Commissioners should be drawn to these valuable documents, and perhaps it might be advisable that a fair transcript of them should be made, under their sanction, to guard against loss or damage by any accident which may happen to the originals.

[2]

Life, p. 148.

[3]

William Skynner, of; Thornton College in the County of Lincoln, Esq. Son and Heir of Sir Vincent Skynner, Knt. Will dated August 3, 1627, proved February 1, 1627-8.

Bridget second daughter of Sir Edward Coke, Knt. Chief Justice of England, and relict of William Berney, Esq. Will (in which she is described of Thornton College, widow,) dated Sept. 26, 1648, proved June 18, 1653, by her son Cyriack Skynner, Executor.

Edward Skynner of Thornton College aforesaid, Esq. son and heir, 1648. Will dated May 20, 1657, proved Sept. 11 following.

=Ann, daughter of Sir Wm. Wentworth, Knt. of Ashby Puerorum in Com. Linc. Grandfather of Thos. Earl of Strafford. Exr. 1657

Edward Skynner 1657

Daughters 1657

William Skynner second son 1634, named in 1648 and in 1657

Cyriack Skynner, 3d son 1634 —named in 1657, of the Parish of St. Martin in the Fields, where he was buried Aug. 8, 1700. Administration of his effects granted to his, Daughter, August 20, 1700.

=Bridget living 1634.

Elizabeth wife of Philip Weslid of Grimsby in Com. Linc. 1643

Theophila, married 1648

Annabella Skynner 1700.

[4]

Fasti Oxonienses, Life of Mr. James Harrington, 389.

[5]

See 'A brief Narrative of the late forcible Seclusion of divers Members of the House of Commons,' 1660, p. 6.

[6]

In the same office have been lately discovered some curious documents, hitherto unknown, respecting both the family history and the official life of Milton, which, by the permission of Mr. Secretary Peel, are now incorporated, with other materials, into an account of him and his writings, about to be published by the Rev. Mr. Todd, the well —known and able editor of Milton's Poetical Works.

[7]

Some Account of the Life and Writings of Milton. Vol. I. p. 161.

[8]

It is desirable that a new edition of these letters should be published from this corrected manuscript. The text appears to differ in many instances from that of our present editions, and from the following printed advertisement, which was found in the same parcel, there can be no doubt that the collection had been carefully revised by the author or his friends, and was prepared for publication. It was intended to have been committed to the press in Holland, and was therefore probably among the papers which Skinner had left in that country. The advertisement itself is curious, as containing an indignant remonstrance against the conduct of some dishonest bookseller who had obtained a surreptitious copy of the letters, and published them in an incorrect shape.

'Innotescat omnibus cum in Academiis, turn in Londino, literatis, Bibliopolis etiam, si qui sint qui praeter solitum Latine sciunt, nee non exteris quibuscunque, quod Literae Joannis Miltoni Angli, interregni tempore scriptæ, quas bibliopola quidam Londinensis, secum habita consultatione quantam in rem famamque quantam imperfectissimum quid et indigestum ex operibos tanti viri sibi pro certo cederet, nuper in lucem irrepi fecit (praeterquam quod a contemptissimo quodam et perobscuro preli quondam curatore, qui parvam schedarum manum vel emendicaverit olim abs authore, vel, quod verisimilius est, clam suppilaverit, perexiguo pretio fuerunt emptae) sunt misere mutilae, dimidiatae, deformes ex omni parte ruptoque ordine confusae, praefatiuncula spurca non minus quam infantissima dehonestatae, caeterisque dein a numerosi oribus chartis nequiter arreptae. Quodque vera Literarum exemplaria, locupletiora multum et auctiora, composita concinnius et digesta, typis elegantioribus excudenda sunt in Hollandia prelo commissa. Quae una cum Articulis Hispanicis, Portugallicis, Gallicis, Belgicis in ista rerum inclinatione nobiscum initis et percussis, pluribusque chartis Germanicis, Danicis, Suevicis scitissime scriptis, ne ex tam spuriis libri natalitiis, et ex tam vili praefatore laederetur author, brevi possis, humamssime lector, expectare.'

[9]

Hayley's Life of Milton, p. 66.

[10]

Bp. Van Mildert's Review of Waterland's Life and Writings. Works, I. 48.

[11]

Prose Works, I. 208.

[12]

Ibid. I. 225, 274. V. 199, 230, 233.

[13]

Ibid. I. 281.

[14]

Ibid. VI. 110.

[15]

Account of the Life and Writings of Mr. J. Milton, p. xxiii. 4to. London, 1753.

[16]

Defensio Secundapro Populo Anglicano. Prose Works, V. 216.

[17]

Prose Works, I. 120.

[18]

Of Reformation in England. Prose Works, I. 56. See indeed the entire context of this and the preceding quotation. Compare also the eloquent conclusion of the fourth section of Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's Defence, I. 181-184.

[19]

Areopagitica. Prose Works, I. 296.

[20]

Prose Works, II. 71.

[21]

I. 115.

[22]

Milton speaks in the most contemptuous terms of these 'marginal stuffings,' in The Reason of Church Government, &c. Prose Works, I. 123. See also An Apology for Smectymnuus, Ibid. 247. And elsewhere he says of Prynne, that he may be known, by his 'wits lying ever beside him in the margin, to be ever beside his wits in the text.' Likeliest Means to remove Hirelings, &c. III. 336. See also II. 241.

[23]

II. 205.

[24]

Prose Works, III. 28.

[25]

II, 202.

[26]

Prose Works, III. 69.

[27]

Defensio Secunda pro Populo Anglicano. Prose Works, V. 233.

[28]

Preface, p. 4.

[29]

Paradise Lost, III. 62-64. 138-140. 305-307. 350. 384-415. V. 603-605. 719, 720. VI. 676-881. X. 63-67. 85, 86. 225, 226.

[30]

Of Reformation in England. Prose Works, I, 7.

[31]

Prose Works, I. 72.

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