Justifying the Ways of God to Man– The Puritans motive was too address the justification of ways of God to man. Paradise Lost revolves around the theme of justifying the ways of God to man where Milton invokes classical muses and Holy Spirit from the Bible to give him knowledge about the subjects he will try to address about the ways of God to man. In the epic , the way of God is shown as having a purpose with a plan. God’s way is according to His will and God does let human reasoning and free will to move according to their own choices and actions.
God purposefully do not intervene in the fall of man and did not even destroy Satan for Milton highlights that God waits for his angels and fallen angels to come back to serve Him with their own reasoning and free will. For instance, Abdiel also joined the service of Satan at the beginning and decided to go against God but he later curses Satan and decided to go back to serve God with his own free will and he was given the status of gods by God in heaven itself. It reflects that God wants the lost angels or man as a whole to use their reason and free will to come back into path of righteousness and serve Him.
When God decided to let Satan deceive mankind and let man fall down was also God’s own purpose because He knows that man has a free will and without it cannot bond with the surroundings around him. He let Satan tempt man and corrupt man because He has a purpose where He knows the future about mankind and the defeat of Satan is certain where the Son or Jesus Christ will come to earth in the form of mortal man to bridge heaven and earth. The story of Raphael’s narration to Adam also reflects the justification of ways of God to man. Raphael narrates the fall of Satan and how he is planning to destroy planet earth with vices and corruption and he warns Adam to not let Satan deceive them. Adam was given the knowledge of true assignment of God’s creation of the universe and His purpose which was to unify Heaven with his creation to create an infinite world.
God’s way was also given to Adam which was to obey His commandments for God has given man a free will and reason for His service. Raphael also highlights that man is not suppose to know His creation for man’s job is to be in service for Him. At the end of the epic, Raphael highlights what would happen to humanity after the fall of man which was also the ways of God to man where God knows the future of humanity who will be saved by Jesus Christ at the end.
The Fall of Man and Depravity- The fall of man and depravity is also the essence of Puritan spirit. In the epic of Paradise Lost , the disobedience of man and the fall of man is depicted when Eve was tempted by the disguised snake of Satan. According to Raphael, woman are internally weak and she is less worthy to Adam internally. Puritans completely tries to dominate and make a woman submit to woman and hence their beliefs made a worst situation for woman during the Puritan rule.
As Eve was a woman , she was easily tempted by the snake and she was asked to eat the forbidden fruit which was the “Tree of Knowledge” claiming that she will become one of the gods and know everything but the tree actually was not the knowledge but a human conscience to understand good and evil. When Eve and Adam ate the forbidden fruit, the earth itself felt wounded and God knew that they have disobeyed Him. Critically, Adam and Eve was given a conscience because they realized the knowledge of their sins , immorality and disobedience towards God.
The Son came to Adam and Eve and curse them that Eve and other woman on earth will have a painful birth and a man will have to carry a heavy burden on earth for he has taken a responsibility to carry the sin of a woman. The fall of man and its consequences is the highlights of Puritanism where Raphael highlights that the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin will led to many more crimes, disobedience, filthy and others which will be wiped during the Flood and later the humanity will be restored with the Son’s sacrifice.
Atonement of Sins and Repentance– The Puritans believed that the Bible is the ultimate authority of God’s judgement and ways. In the Bible , the idea of atonement of sins and repentance is a thematically repeated pattern where God wants His creation to repent for their sins and atone for their guilt. Paradise Lost reflects that God waits for other angels and His creation to atone for their sins. The fallen angels when having a debate with each other to plot against God tells that God still believes that they will atone for their sins and will return back to serve God. This reflects that atonement and repentance of sins is a way to heaven and God wants man to repent for their mistakes and sins so that they can get to heaven.
Salvation of Jesus Christ as the Ultimate Power to Destroy Evil– The salvation of Jesus Christ who died on the cross is a symbolical representation of destroying the evil for the last time on earth and the punishment will be at the Second Coming. Milton highlights that man will be saved those who believe that the Son died on the cross for humanity and this future prospects was given to Adam to foresee the future of what would happen to humanity. Adam was relieved that the good things will still be there on earth in the future even after their commit of sins on Paradise. Puritans stressed on morality heavily and Paradise Lost reflects on morality to use free will and reasoning to serve God. The epic establishes that morality is the way to heaven.
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