But All the Heav’nly Quire Stood Mute: An Anglican Pastoral Visit and Milton’s Paradise Lost

I have had the most wonderful pastoral visit by an Anglican pastor. My friend and colleague is an Army chaplain, a true, faithful shepherd of souls, and, as I would soon learn, a very capable Milton scholar. In his time with me, he began to talk about life and ministry from the standpoint of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. It is not often, in today’s world, that one has the opportunity to do theological reflection on life’s events through the lens of Scripture and the world’s greatest poetry. I considered my time with this trusted spiritual advisor to be a rare gift from the Lord. So I wrote him a letter following up on a promised and favorite Miltonic line that I had brought to the conversation. I, later, learned that he had found the line by the time he returned to his office and had spent the morning meditating on its meaning.

When he told me that he had reared his children not only on the Bible, but, also, on Milton and Shakespeare, I knew there was still hope.

[pullquote]When he told me that he had reared his children not only on the Bible, but, also, on Milton and Shakespeare, I knew there was still hope.[/pullquote]

Here is my letter with personal references removed, but with thoughts on Book III of Paradise Lost remaining. I share it because I believe it has pastoral value for others.

Dear Friend:

I appreciate your thoughtful pastoral visit this morning. Thank you. To say that I was amazed by your Miltonic knowledge would be to underestimate the possibilities of an Anglican pastor-scholar, which one should never do!

The singular passage that I referenced in our happy conversation was, indeed, from Book III of Paradise Lost. But the lines had escaped me. The lines are : 213-250. Knowing you, you probably have your Cambridge Companion to Milton nearby. But, in case you don’t, this may be accessed at the Dartmouth College website (among many other fine sites) Here is my source: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/book_3/index.shtml

Two lines stand out to me and I have quoted these on numerous occassions in preaching. They are powerful lines that describe the great covenantal scheme of redemption (in a most poetic way, of course), supporting the Scriptures, very well, from a heavenly standpoint. I have found this helpful in trying to help others understand John 10:27-30:

²⁷My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. ³⁰I and the Father are one.”

One of those places is from lines 217-219:

“He ask’d, but all the Heav’nly Quire stood mute

And silence was in Heav’n: on mans behalf

Patron or Intercessor none appeerd,”

Here is the powerful problem of the fall captured by Milton in as he depicts the greatest of all crisis from the heavenly realm. Sin and its consequences has a cosmic impact so that the angels, the “heavenly choir,” is muted by the moral tragedy of mankind and the loss of any possible redemption.

Yet Christ, Himself, becomes the self-sacrificing Answer, as the blind Puritan Poet assumes the voice of the Son in this Epic with that line of lines, “Father…Man shall find grace”(and when I read it from the pulpit I emphasize SHALL in my reading):

Father, thy word is past, man shall find grace;

And shall grace not find means, that finds her way,

The speediest of thy winged messengers,

To visit all thy creatures, and to all [ 230 ]

Comes unprevented, unimplor’d, unsought,

Happie for man, so coming; he her aide

Can never seek, once dead in sins and lost;

Attonement for himself or offering meet,

Indebted and undon, hath none to bring: [ 235 ]

Behold mee then, mee for him, life for life

I offer, on mee let thine anger fall;

Account mee man; I for his sake will leave

Thy bosom, and this glorie next to thee

Freely put off, and for him lastly dye [ 240 ]

Well pleas’d, on me let Death wreck all his rage;

This is followed by the Son’s promise of resurrection, ascension, victory and glorious reign:

Under his gloomie power I shall not long

Lie vanquisht; thou hast givn me to possess

Life in my self for ever, by thee I live,

Though now to Death

I yield, and am his due [ 245 ]

All that of me can die, yet that debt paid,

Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsom grave

His prey, nor suffer my unspotted Soule

For ever with corruption there to dwell;

But I shall rise Victorious, and subdue [ 250 ]

Here, now, is the entire section that is so very moving to me:

Say Heav’nly Powers, where shall we find such love,

Which of ye will be mortal to redeem

Mans mortal crime, and just th’ unjust to save, [ 215 ]

Dwels in all Heaven charitie so deare?

He ask’d, but all the Heav’nly Quire stood mute , [217]

And silence was in Heav’n: on mans behalf [218]

Patron or Intercessor none appeerd, [219]

Much less that durst upon his own head draw [ 220 ]

The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set.

And now without redemption all mankind

Must have bin lost, adjudg’d to Death and Hell

By doom severe, had not the Son of God,

In whom the fulness dwells of love divine, [ 225 ]

His dearest mediation thus renewd.

Father, thy word is past, man shall find grace ;