Catalogue Entry: THEM00330

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'The papal antichristian church permits not her laity to read the Bible in their own tongue; our church on the contrary hath proposed it to all men... Neither let the countryman, the tradesman, the lawyer, the physician, the statesman excuse himself by his much business, from the studious reading thereof.' Of true Religion, &c. Prose Works. IV. 266.

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'I offer it to the reason of any man, whether he think the knowledge of Christian religion harder than any other art or science to attain. I suppose he will grant that it is far easier, both of itself, and in regard of God's assisting Spirit... Therefore are the Scriptures translated into every vulgar tongue, as being held in main matters of belief and salvation plain and easy to the poorest, and such no less than their teachers have the the Spirit to guide them in all truth, John xiv. 26. xvi. 13.' Considerations on the likeliest Means to remove Hirelings out of the Church. Prose Works, III. 372.

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.....the truth,

Left only in those written records pure,

Though not but by the Spirit understood. Paradise Lost, XII. 511

..... he, who receives

Light from above, from the fountain of light,

No other doctrine needs, though granted true.

Paradise Regained, IV. 288.

'The study of Scripture, which is the only true theology —.' Considerations on the likeliest Means to remove Hirelings, &c. Prose Works, III. 377.

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Considering the language employed in parts of this treatise, Milton more frequently censures the metaphysical divinity than might have been expected. His practice at least, in this as well as in some other points, is not very consistent with his theory. He speaks however in other works in the same slighting manner of the sophistry of the schools. In the following passage it is not impossible that he may allude to the very Treatise which is now for the first time published. 'Somewhere or other, I trust, may be found some wholesome body of divinity, as they call it, without school-terms and metaphysical notions, which have obscured rather than explained our religion, and made it difficult without cause.' Considerations, &c. Prose Works, III. 375.

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'Every true Christian, able to give a reason of his faith, hath the word of God before him, the promised Holy Spirit, and the mind of Christ within: 1 Cor. ii. 16.' Treatise of Civil Power, &c. Prose Works, III, 321.

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'What Protestant then, who himself maintains the same principles, and disavows all implicit faith, would prosecute, and not rather charitably tolerate such men as these?' Of true Religion, &c. IV. 263.

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See the Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes: 'First it cannot be denied —counts all heretics but himself.' Prose Works, III, 320-326.

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See Horne's Introduction to the Critical Study of the Scriptures, Vol. II. p. 385. Note 2.

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For the authenticity of the passage alluded to John vii. 53. and viii. 1-11. see Whitby and Mill in loco. Selden, Uxor. Heb. III. 11. Simon, Crit. Hist, of the New Testament, I. 13. Michaelis, Part I. Chap. vi. Sect. 11. Against its authenticity, see Beza, Grotius, Wetstein, Hammond and Le Clerc in loco.

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'As the Samaritans believed Christ, first for the woman's word, but next and much rather for his own, so we the Scripture: first on the church's word, but afterwards and much more for its own, as the word of God; yea the church itself we believe then for the Scripture.' Treatise Of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes. Prose Works, III. 326.

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..... From that pretence

Spiritual laws by carnal power shall force

On every conscience; laws which none shall find

Left them inroll'd, or what the Spirit within

Shall on the heart engrave. What will they then

But force the Spirit of grace itself?...

..... for, on earth,

Who against faith and conscience can be heard Infallible? Paradise Lost, XII. 520.

'With good cause, therefore, it is the general consent of all sound Protestant writers, that neither traditions, councils, nor canons of any visible church, much less edicts of any magistrate or civil session, but the Scripture only, can be the final judge or rule in matters of religion, and that only in the conscience of every Christian to himself.' Treatise of Civil Power, &c. Prose Works, III. 321

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'He hath revealed and taught it us in the Holy Scriptures by inspired ministers, and in the gospel by his own Son and his apostles, with strictest command to reject all other traditions or additions whatsoever; according to that of St. Paul, Gal. i. 8. and Deut. iv. 2. Rev. xxii. 18, 19.' Of true Religion, &c. Prose Works, IV. 260.

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'If we turn this our discreet and wary usage of them into a blind devotion towards them, and whatsoever we find written by them, we both forsake our own grounds and reasons which led us at first to part from Rome, that is, to hold to the Scriptures against all antiquity.' Of Prelatical Episcopacy. I. 75.

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'Remonst. He that said I am the way, said that the old way was the good way. Answ. He bids ask of the old paths, or for the old ways, where or which is the good way; which implies that all old ways are not good, but that the good way is to be searched with diligence among the old ways, which is the thing that we do in the oldest records we have, the gospel.' Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's Defence. Prose Works, I. 177.