The hermeneutics of John Milton

Includes bibliographical references (pages 103-105)John Milton???s hermeneutics developed over a period of years. He\ud embraced the Protestant position that accepted the Bible as the sole\ud arbiter in issues affecting man???s relationship to God and other men.\ud However, a study of Milton???s Biblical interpretation reveals a\ud changing development as he practiced his hermeneutics in his prose\ud writings.\ud He devoted his early tracts to the antiprelatical controversy,\ud the conflict concerning ecclesiastical authority. As a Puritan,\ud Milton believed that the Scriptures clearly taught a presbyterian\ud church government structure or rule by the assembly rather than the\ud episcopacy of the Anglican Church, which imposed a hierarchy of\ud bishops on people regardless of those bishops??? qualifications. In\ud these tracts Milton held that Scriptures were clear and could be\ud understood by anyone who read with an open heart and mind.\ud A few years after the antiprelatical tracts, Milton wrote a\ud series of tracts discussing divorce. He believed that men should be\ud allowed the right and responsibility to divorce if they found that\ud their minds were incompatible with that of their marriage partner's.\ud He believed that God desired a mutual communion of reason for a\ud proper marriage between a man and a woman. Incompatibility of minds\ud could be grounds for divorce. In these tracts Milton saw himself as\ud the sole advocate for a discountenanced truth and as one who had the\ud proper medicine to heal men's eyes so that they could see the truth\ud clearly. In the divorce tracts Milton's hermeneutics changed from\ud holding to a literal interpretation to an interpretation that needs\ud to be made by someone enlightened with the proper understanding. He\ud believed that he was so enlightened.\ud Milton's theological compendium, De Doctrina Christiana, or,\ud Christian Doctrine, summarizes his years of Biblical studies; and\ud this work shows clearly yet another development in his hermeneutics.\ud Milton said that the rule and canon of faith are the Scriptures. He\ud sounded like an orthodox Protestant in this statement, but he\ud believed that Scripture was two-fold: the external record of the\ud written Scriptures and, almost more significantly, the internal\ud witness of the Holy Spirit, the inner Scripture. Milton thought the\ud external Scriptures had suffered corruption, but the inner Spirit\ud could not. Therefore, a man was to accept the witness of the inner\ud Scripture above all outside human sources since the Spirit would\ud teach the truth to the believing heart.\ud The position that Milton presented in his Christian Doctrine is\ud the underlying premise of his three major poetic works: Paradise\ud Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. His inner Scripture\ud principle affects his view of God, Christ, and man, since he sought \ud to justify the ways of God to man. He said that he depended upon\ud the Spirit to teach him as he wrote so that God might be seen more\ud clearly. His last two major poems give a different picture of their\ud subjects, Christ and Samson, than the Scriptures portray; but Milton\ud depended upon his inner light to conclude that man was to obey as he\ud was taught from Scripture