John Milton's Poetry

I know I keep jumping from one author to another, but my mind right now is jumbled with many thoughts trying desperately to come up with some kind of coherent thesis.  I feel kind of like the little white balls in the lottery tumbler waiting for the person to stop the motion so that at least a few of my thoughts can come to the surface and make themselves known.  

I have been reading Milton's Paradise Lost for months now.  I pick it up, put it down, chew on it a while, then put it down again.  It is the most beautiful epic poem that the world of literature has ever produced, humanly speaking.  I am not putting it above Scripture or anything like that.  I have been astonished at it's depth of reasoning, beauty, choice of words and phrases, the depth of which Milton knew of the Bible, secular literature, geography, every subject under the sun, and his ability to put it all together.  What a mind.  When I read something I am always compelled into doing more research on the subjects in the literature in question that I do not know.  I have learned a great deal about Milton, his world at the time, and subsequent scholars interpretations of Milton.  Samuel Johnson in 1783 said "poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason."  It is very much akin to music as it relates to worship.  Music does for worship what poetry does for reason.  This is exactly what Paradise Lost does for human kind.  I use the phrase "for human kind" because of the absolute magnitude that this poem has had on and in the world.  He gives us an epic poem along the same lines as Homer and Virgil did, but they wrote about "the gods" little "g", while Milton wrote about the Almighty God maker of Heaven and Earth.  Instead of a battle as in The Iliad the battle is in the heart of human kind, the hero and the heroine as they fall from innocence.  The restoration is in whether they will repent, be saved, and completely restored not by anything they have done but by the salvation to come.  

Milton understood his place in the Universe.  He, by the time that he wrote Paradise Lost, was completely blind, dependent, and had lost most of his worldly possessions and his status in life that he had once attained.  This brings me to the point of my last blog, and I will attempt to tie Edwards and Milton into the Gospel.  

One of the most praise worthy points of Edwards was that in contrasting the hypocrite and the true believer, his entire understanding is from a God centered view point.  The hypocrite is not spiritually minded, in fact, he may not ever have even bowed his knee before the holy God.  The true believer will face trials, tribulations, times of fear, simply because he has the Holy Spirit of God.  The hypocrite is being led along by his own passions not checked by the Spirit, Satan is leaving him just where he wants him to be; smug, complacent, undoubting, and self-confident.  He, the great deceiver wants him to stay there so that he will never realize that he is blind, naked, and un-done.  This is the Gospel that is outlined and emphasized by Edwards and Milton.  We are completely dependent on grace, not just at the beginning of our Christian life, but all throughout our lives.  As believers, it is when we have doubts, trials etc, that the God of grace is bringing us back to more and more dependence on Him and Him alone.  Milton, unlike Edwards, did have some theological inconsistencies, but he does give us a marvelous picture of the grandeur of God, and the crime that the Fall was upon mankind.  Our crime, our sin.  

There is a contemporary Christian song circulating the airwaves right now that has some of the best theology in it that I have ever heard.  It also makes the point in which I am attempting here.  It is "I Will Not be Moved" by Natalie Grant:

*(notice that she illustrates that she doesn't persevere because she has it all together, she perseveres because of God and His grace)

I have been the wayward child

I have acted out

I have questioned Sovereignty

And had my share of doubt

And though sometimes my prayers feel like

They're bouncing off the sky

The hand I hold won't let me go

And is the reason why...

Chorus:

I will stumble

I will fall down

But I will not be moved

I will make mistakes

I will face heartache

But I will not be moved

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand

All other ground is sinking sand

I will not be moved

Bitterness has plagued my heart 

Many times before

My life has been like broken glass 

And I have kept the score

Of all my shattered dreams and though it seemed 

That I was far too gone

My brokenness helped me to see

It's grace I'm standing on

Chorus

And the chaos in my life

Has been a badge I've worn

Though I have been torn

I will not be moved

(Natalie Grant) 

I too will not be moved.  I can say that with absolute confidence, not because of me, but of whom I am dependent.  He takes this very blind, naked, and helpless child and makes me stand unmoved.  Praise to the God of Great Grace.