Suppose he should relent And publish grace to all, on promise made Of new subjection; with what eyes could we 240 Stand in his presence humble, and receive Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his throne With warbled hymns, and to his Godhead sing Forced hallelujahs, while he lordly sits Our envied sovereign, and his altar breathes 245 Ambrosial odours and ambrosial flowers, Our servile offerings? This must be our task In Heaven, this our delight. How wearisome Eternity so spent in worship paid
Mammon
Mammon rejects even the idea of returning to Heaven because it would require subjugation. He can imagine God relenting and offering grace, but he sees that “forgiveness” as a deeper humiliation than damnation. To Mammon, an eternity of “warbled hymns” and “forced hallelujahs” is a kind of spiritual slavery—existence without autonomy, meaning without freedom. His revolt is not passionate like Satan’s or despairing like Belial’s; it’s principled and political. Mammon insists that dignity is impossible under total authority, even benevolent authority, because worship that is mandated becomes hollow. His vision of Heaven is a gilded cage: beautiful, fragrant, ambrosial—but still a cage. So he argues that Hell, though painful, offers liberty, while Heaven would demand obedience so absolute that eternity itself would become “wearisome.” In this moment, Mammon becomes Milton’s voice of proto-enlightenment rebellion, insisting that meaning cannot survive coercion, and that freedom—even in suffering—is preferable to imposed bliss.
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