THE THOUGHT FORMS of Ramist systematic theology, which Milton used, made many assumptions in order to launch discussion and to organize the whole thing into a structure. It has been compared to the skeleton of a carp, in which the fish's every bone divides in two. It resembles a wiring diagram, in that the mains power is seen dividing many times across the page, from left to right, or some large river entering its delta. The fundamentally binary structure proceeds by division and definition, privileging an abstract thinking by either-or. It begins with God and divides faith from worship and charity (in two books), then in Book 1 works from God's nature (Chapter 2) or efficiency (Chapter 3), which is internal or external, and the external is general or special (which latter distinction turns up several more times later). Oxford sets it all out in four charts, on pages lxvi– lxxiii. These dispositions, and their inherent division and its either-or, constrain the findings and the discussions themselves.

This overriding constraint puts everything in its place, and has a place for everything that counts—or so we have to hope. It does make for ease of exposition, by a basic pigeonholing and clear placing of the definitions and divisions. How it will deal with ragged or suppositious material, or with evidence from cases which are mixed, I cannot see. This did not trouble Milton. He was used to it. What should concern us, however, within the general reliance on this method of thought are his particular presuppositions or axioms. Within the systemic binarism, these are individual, personal, his own choices. Why does he innovate, and what results? In this chapter I examine first the broad question then the particular ones to bring out the first of Milton's methodological idiosyncrasies.

Unstated Assumptions

One unexamined assumption is that a personal faith can be itemized according to a Ramist, bifurcating arrangement, laid down at the outset and unchanged as the work proceeds. What if the findings turned out to require a different sequence? Why does Milton organize his subjects into fifty chapters, proportioned 33:17 between the two books? Why does a theology based on scripture discuss scripture in the thirtieth chapter, not the first?