o pray for you. Was it not you that scribbled a
justification of the murder of the King against Salmasius, and made
it good too thus: that murder was an action meritorious compared
with your superior wickedness? 'Tis there (as I remember) that you
commonplace yourself into set forms of railing, two pages thick;
and, lest your infamy should not extend itself enough within the
course and usage of your mother-tongue, the thing is dressed up in
a travelling garb and language, to blast the English nation to the
universe, and give every man a horror for mankind when he considers
_you_ are of the race. In this you are above all others; but
in your _Eikonoklastes_ you exceed yourself. There, not
content to see that sacred head divided from the body, your
piercing malice enters into the private agonies of his struggling
soul, with a blasphemous insolence invading the prerogative of God
himself (omniscience), and by deductions most unchristian and
illogical aspersing his last pieties (the almost certain
inspirations of the Holy Spirit) with juggle and prevarication. Nor
are the words ill-fitted to the matter, the bold design being
suited with a conform irreverence of language. But I do not love to
rake long in a puddle. To take a view in particular of all your
factious labours would cost more time than I am willing to afford
them. Wherefore I shall stride over all the rest and pass directly
to your _Brief Notes upon a late Sermon_ ... Any man that can
but read your title may understand your drift, and that you charge
the royal interest and party through the Doctor's sides. I am not
bold enough to be his champion in all particulars, nor yet so rude
as to take an office most properly to him belonging out of his
hand. Let him acquit himself in what concerns the divine; and I'll
adventure upon the most material parts of the rest." [Extracts from
Milton's _Notes on Dr. Griffith's Sermon_ follow, with brief
comments, of no interest, and showing no ability.]

Almost immediately there followed "_The Dignity of Kingship
Asserted: in answer to Mr. Milton's 'Ready and Easie Way to establish
a Free Commonwealth.' Proving that Kinqship is both in itself and in
reference to these nations farre the most Excellent Government, and
the returning to our former Loyalty or Obedience thereto is the only
way under God to restore and settle these three once flourishing,
now languishing, broken