In a word, Mr. Milton has indeed made a fine Poem, but it is the Devil of a History. I can easily allow Mr. Milton to make Hills and Dales, flowry Meadows and Plains (and the like) in Heaven; and places of Retreat and Contemplation in Hell; tho’ I must add, that it can be allowed to no Poet on Earth but Mr. Milton. Nay, I will allow Mr. Milton, if you please, to set the Angels a dancing in Heaven, lib. v. fo. 138. and the Devils a singing in Hell, lib. i. fo. 44. tho’ they are in short, especially the last, most horrid Absurdities. But I cannot allow him to make their Musick in Hell to be harmonious and charming as he does; such Images being incongruous, and indeed shocking to Nature. Neither can I think we should allow things to be plac’d out of time in Poetry, any more than in History; ’tis a confusion of Images which is allow’d to be disallow’d by all the Criticks of what tribe or species soever in the world, and is indeed unpardonable. But we shall find so many more of these things in Mr. Milton, that really taking notice of them all, would carry me quite out of my way, I being at this time not writing the History of Mr. Milton, but of the Devil: besides, Mr. Milton is such a celebrated Man, that who but he that can write the History of the Devil dare meddle with him?
But to come back to the business. As I had caution’d you against running to Scripture for shelter in cases of difficulty, Scripture weighing very little among the people I am directing my Speech to; so indeed Scripture gives but very little light into any thing of the Devil’s Story before his Fall, and but to very little of it for some time after.
Nor has Mr. Milton said one word to solve the main difficulty (viz.) How the Devil came to fall, and how Sin came into Heaven; how the spotless Seraphic Nature could receive infection, whence the contagion proceeded, what noxious matter could emit corruption there, how and whence any vapour to poison the Angelick Frame could rise up, or how it increas’d and grew up to crime. But all this he passes over, and hurrying up that part in two or three words, only tells us,
——— his Pride,
Had cast him out of Heaven with all his Host
Of rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
He trusted to have equal’d the most High.
lib. i. fo. 3.
His pride! but how came Satan while an Arch-angel to be proud? How did it consist, that Pride and perfect Holiness should meet in the same Person? Here we must bid Mr. Milton good night; for, in plain terms, he is in the dark about it, and so we are all; and the most that can be said, is, that we know the fact is so, but nothing of the nature or reason of it.
But to come to the History: The Angels fell, they sinn’d (wonderful!) in Heaven, and God cast them out; what their sin was is not explicit, but in general ’tis call’d a Rebellion against God; all sin must be so.
Mr. Milton here takes upon him to give the History of it, as particularly as if he had been born there, and came down hither on purpose to give us an account of it; (I hope he is better inform’d by this time;) but this he does in such a manner, as jostles with Religion, and shocks our Faith in so many points necessary to be believ’d, that we must forbear to give up to Mr. Milton, or must set aside part of the sacred Text, in such a manner, as will assist some people to set it all aside.
I mean by this, his invented Scheme of the Son’s being declared in Heaven to be begotten then, and then to be declar’d Generalissimo of all the Armies of Heaven; and of the Father’s Summoning all the Angels of the heavenly Host to submit to him, and pay him homage. The words are quoted already, page 32.
I must own the Invention, indeed, is very fine; the Images exceeding magnificent, the Thought rich and bright, and, in some respect, truly sublime: But the Authorities fail most wretchedly, and the miss-timing of it, is unsufferably gross, as is noted in the Introduction to this Work; for Christ is not declar’d the Son of God but on Earth; ’tis true, ’tis spoken from Heaven, but then ’tis spoken as perfected on Earth; if it was at all to be assign’d to Heaven, it was from Eternity, and there, indeed, his eternal Generation is allow’d; but to take upon us to say, that On a day, a certain day, for so our Poet assumes, lib. v. fol. 137.
——— ‘When on a day,
——— ‘On such a day
‘As Heaven’s great Year brings forth, the empyreal Host
‘Of Angels by imperial Summons call’d,
‘Forthwith from all the ends of Heaven appear’d.
This is, indeed, too gross; at this meeting he makes God declare the Son to be that day begotten, as before; had he made him not begotten that day, but declared General that day, it would be reconcileable with Scripture and with sense; for either the begetting is meant of ordaining to an office, or else the eternal Generation falls to the ground; and if it was to the office (Mediator) then Mr. Milton is out in ascribing another fix’d day to the Work; see lib. x. fo. 194. But then the declaring him that day, is wrong chronology too, for Christ is declar’d the Son of God with power, only by the Resurrection of the dead, and this is both a Declaration in Heaven and in Earth. Rom. i. 4. And Milton can have no authority to tell us, there was any Declaration of it in Heaven before this, except it be that dull authority call’d poetic License, which will not pass in so solemn an affair as that.
But the thing was necessary to Milton, who wanted to assign some cause or original of the Devil’s Rebellion; and so, as I said above, the design is well laid, it only wants two Trifles call’d Truth and History; so I leave it to struggle for itself.
This Ground-plot being laid, he has a fair field for the Devil to play the Rebel in, for he immediately brings him in, not satisfy’d with the Exaltation of the Son of God. The case must be thus; Satan being an eminent Arch-angel, and perhaps, the highest of all the Angelic Train, hearing this Sovereign Declaration, that the Son of God was declar’d to be Head or Generalissimo of all the heavenly Host, took it ill to see another put into the high station over his head, as the Soldiers call it; he, perhaps, thinking himself the senior Officer, and disdaining to submit to any but to his former immediate Sovereign; in short, he threw up his Commission, and, in order not to be compel’d to obey, revolted and broke out in open Rebellion.
All this part is a Decoration noble and great, nor is there any objection to be made against the invention, because a deduction of probable Events; but the Plot is wrong laid, as is observ’d above, because contradicted by the Scripture account, according to which Christ was declared in Heaven, not then, but from Eternity, and not declared with power, but on Earth, (viz.) in his victory over Sin and Death, by the Resurrection from the dead: so that Mr. Milton is not orthodox in this part, but lays an avow’d foundation for the corrupt Doctrine of Arius, which says, there was a time when Christ was not the Son of God.
But to leave Mr. Milton to his flights, I agree with him in this part, viz. that the wicked or sinning Angels, with the great Arch-angel at the head of them, revolted from their obedience, even in Heaven it self; that Satan began the wicked defection, and being a Chief among the heavenly Host, consequently carry’d over a great party with him, who