This was somewhat startling to the great orthodox world, who had taken many of their conceptions of supernatural things from Milton's _Paradise Lost_; and yet a careful study of that poem will disclose similar tendencies in the poet's mind.

He was a Puritan whose theology was progressive until it issued in complete isolation: he left the Presbyterian ranks for the Independents, and then, startled by the rise and number of sects, he retired within himself and stood almost alone, too proud to be instructed, and dissatisfied with the doctrines and excesses of his earlier colleagues.
In 1653 he lost his wife, Mary Powell, who left him three daughters.

He supplied her place in 1656, by marrying Catherine Woodstock, to whom he was greatly attached, and who also died fifteen months after.

Eight years afterward he married his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, who survived him..