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    thus ends all that I doubt I shall ever be able to do with my own eyes in the keeping of ray Journall , I being * not able to do it any longer , having done

    now so long as to undo my eyes almost every time that I take a pen in my hand : aiftl , therefore , whatever comes of it , I must forbear ; and , therefore , resolve from this time

    forward to have it kept by my people in long-hand ,, and must be contented to set down no more than is fit for them and all the world to know , or if there be any thing , I must endeavour to keep a margin in my book open , to add here and there a note in

    shorthand with my own hand . And so I betake myself to that course , which is almost as much as to see myself go into my grave ; for which and all the discomforts that will accompany my being blind , the good God prepare

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    have discovered passages of transceiW dant energy and pathos , which would bear comparison with the very richest of his other compositions . " Yet , strange to tell » notwithstanding these high encomiums , the writer

    says , " It is not without a pang of regret that we profess our belief that this long-lost system of theology is indeed the actual production of the immortal Milton . It is but too lamentably evident from this volume , that towards the close of his earthly

    pilgrimage , his opinions were in many essential particulars erroneous and unscriptural . It is , indeed , harrowing to the feelings to learn from Milton ' s own shewing that he believed the Son of God to be nothing more than an exalted creature . &c . With these

    cardinal errors are mixed up a variety of minor ones , equally characteristic of that spirit of unhallowed speculation , which in the case of the great poet was found to associate itself with an avowed contempt for human authority and a profound deference for

    the word of God . When first we perused the objectionable parts of Milton s theology , we were ready to say , What a pity it is that the work at large ever escaped from its ancient hiding - place 1 — We conclude , &c . [ See the remainder of the passage in Dr . Evans ' s letter , p . 712 . ]

    It must be left to the writer and his approvers to reconcile " a spirit of unhallowed speculation — with an avowed contempt for human authority , and a profound deference for the word of God , " and a want of humility with " a decided appeal to the sacred oracles : " also , the opinions of Milton € i towards the close of his earthlv

    pilgrimage being wretchedly erroneous and unscriptural , " when , according to the writer , " it cannot for a moment be doubted but that his judgment must have reached its utmost maturity . "

    Although great names are not to be alleged as proofs of any doctrines , yet it may well afford Unitarians a considerable degree of satisfaction , that they can now without the least hesitation rank Milton with Locke

    Newton , Whitby , and other eminent persons of olden times as decided abettors of the Divine Unity . W . C .

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    746 Evangelical Magazine on Milton * s Treatise .

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    Framlingham , Sir , December 14 , 1825 . IT is matter of congratulation to the Unitarian public that the Evangelical Magazine for this month , ( pp ,

    506 , 507 , ) has lent its aid to give publicity to the lately-discovered theological work of the great John Milton , amongst its numerous orthodox readers , many of whom probably would never have heard of its being brought to light , but for the notice there taken of it . In the critique are the following

    expressions : ' * We profess our belief that this long-lost system of theology is indeed the actual production of the immortal Milton . That it fell from his pen , and that too at a period of life when his judgment must have reached its utmost maturity , cannot for a moment be doubted . — In the

    case of the great poet was found an avowed contempt for human authority , and a profound deference for the word of God . It has ( i . e . the work ) some decided claims on the lovers of biblical knowledge . It is marked throughout by a very

    decided appeal to the sacred oracles . If the proofs selected from the Holy Scriptures are not always pertinent , they are at least exceedingly numerous , and shew that the distinguished author had not relinquished , in the progress of his speculations , a profound deference for the word of God . In some parts of the work , too , we

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1825, page 746, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2543/page/42/