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creature , was erected or produced , of the substance of God , not by a natural necessity , but by the free-will of the agent , probably before the foundations of the world were laid , but later than the Son , and far inferior to him . " P . 171 . He anticipates ( p . 167 ) Dr , Samuel Clarke ' s interpretation of the
Baptismal form , Matt , xxviii . 19 : ' . ' Our eternal salvation is owing to the Father , our redemption to the Son , and our sanctifieation to the Spirit . The power of the Father is inherent in himself , that of the Son and Spirit is received from the Father "
-&c-The work of creation , properly so called , is assigned by Milton to Christ . He had no prepossession for the scheme of Socinus . € < he by whom all thing's were made both in heaven and earth , even the angels
themselves , he who in the beginning was the Word , and God with God , and although not supreme , yet the first-born of every creature , must necessarily have existed previous to his incarnation , whatever subtilties may have been , invented to evade this
Conclusion by those zvho contend for the merely human nature of ChristS * Pp . 298 , 299 . Milton held the doctrine of Atonement , nearly as it is now held by Calvinists . He thus defines the
humiliation of the Redeemer : " The Humiliation of Christ is that State in which under his character of God-man he voluntarily submitted himself to the Divine Justice , as well in Life as in
Death , for the purpose of undergoing all things requisite to accomplish our redemption . " P , 316 . He considers Christ to have been a proper sacrifice 46 both in his divine and human
nature , " and " slain in the whole of his nature . " The following definition is orthodox enough on this point to satisfy a synbd of "Westminster Divines : " " The satisfaction of Christ
is the Complete Reparation made by him in his two-fold capacity of God and Man , by the fulfilment of the Law and payment of the required price for all mankind . " P . 322 . The
heresy of general redemption appears in the last clause of the quotation ; but with tj ^ is doctrine , Milton united that of the special operations of the Holy Spirit on the minds of individuals , which he-regarded as necessary to the
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production of saving faith . See Chap , XVIII . and XX . On the economy of redemption , Milton is of the same mind as the Remonstrants of Holland . He denies , as we have seen , absolute personal election and , of consequence , final perseverance .
He was a believer in the existence of a race of beingfc called angels , with a gradation of ranks , dignities and offices ; and also in the apostacy of a part of them who since their revolt have been known as devils .
He held the bold doctrine of the homogeneity of man , and of the extinction of the whole man at death . He received the fall of man in a literal sense , and though he scrupled the phrase " Original Sin /* admitted the universal hereditary depravity of the human race .
His opinion on the liberty of divorce for other causes than adultery was well known in his life-time , when also he waa suspected of inclining to the lawfulness of polygamy , which he defends in this posthumous Treatise .
A favourite point with Milton is the abolition under the Gospel of the whole Mosaic law : but the Antinomians cannot boast that if now alive he would be a member of the church ( late W . Huntington ' s ) in Gray ' s Inn Lane , for in the ethical part of the Treatise he asserts the merit of good works .
He abandons the Sabbath as a Christian institution , and pronounces the observation of the First Day of the week to be matter of expediency only , and not to be enforced by the civil power . He rejects the baptism of infants , and maintains the immersion of adult
believers : but he does not allot to baptism the first place in the scale of Christian duties ( see p . 463 ) ; on the contrary , he seems to justify its disuse in certain cases ( see pp . 439 and 444 ) , and as far as we know his religious history , his own example was conformable not to the rule but to the
exception of baptism . His view of the Lord ' s Supper will be generally esteemed a low one : he regarded the ordinance as a rite of memorial and hospitality , and , glancing at the orthodox churches of hia day , writes with indignation of the
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Review . ^ Mlton s Treatise of Christian LH > ctrine . f 4 St
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1825, page 749, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2543/page/45/
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