aintenance of Ministers can be
settled in Law, Lond. 1659, 12mo.

Upon the dissolution of the Parliament by the army, after Richard
Cromwell had been obliged to resign the Protectorship, Milton wrote a
letter, in which he lays down the model of a commonwealth; not such as
he judged the best, but what might be the readiest settled at that
time, to prevent the restoration of kingly government and domestic
disorders till a more favourable season, and better dispositions for
erecting a perfect democracy. He drew up likewise another piece to the
same purpose, which seems to have been addressed to general Monk; and
he published in February 1659, his ready and easy way to establish a
free Commonwealth. Soon after this he published his brief notes upon a
late sermon, entitled, the Fear of God and the King, printed in 4to,
Lond. 1660. Just before the restoration he was removed from his office
of Latin secretary, and concealed himself till the act of oblivion was
published; by the advice of his friends he absconded till the event of
public affairs should direct him what course to take, for this purpose
he retired to a friend's house in Bartholomew-Close, near
West-Smithfield, till the general amnesty was declared.

The act of oblivion, says Mr. Phillips, proving as favourable to him,
as could be hoped or expected, through the intercession of some that
stood his friends both in Council and Parliament; particularly in the
House of Commons, Mr. Andrew Marvel member for Hull, and who has
prefixed a copy of verses before his Paradise Lost, acted vigorously
in his behalf, and made a considerable party for him, so that together
with John Goodwin of Coleman-Street, he was only so far excepted as
not to bear any office in the Commonwealth; but as this is one of the
most important circumstances in the life of our author, we shall give
an account of it at large, from Mr. Richardson, in his life of Milton,
prefixed to his Explanatory Notes, and Remarks on Paradise Lost.

His words are

'That Milton escaped is well known, but not how. By the accounts we
have, he was by the Act of Indemnity only incapacitated for any public
employment. This is a notorious mistake, though Toland, the bishop of
Sarum, Fenton, &c, have gone into it, confounding him with Goodwin;
their cases were very different, as I found upon enquiry. Not to take
a matter of this importance upon trust, I had first recourse to the
Act itself. Milton is not among the excepted.