“Teach the Erring Soul” 1669–1674More... brought two witnesses... who might well have known the author, and
who might, if asked, have been able to reveal him. Thus there truly hung over me and
my head most certain ruin. But that great Vindicator of justice... saved my life
through Milton’s pride... [who] could never be brought to confess himself to be so
grossly deceived.... And since Milton preferred to have me safe rather than himself
ridiculous, I got this reward for my work, that I had Milton, whom I had treated
pretty roughly, as my patron and solicitous shield-bearer for my head.^40Milton must have hated to have Du Moulin’s ridicule resurface, again reviling him
and calling attention to the error he had clung to so stubbornly and given over so
reluctantly.^41
In the early months of 1672 Milton prepared his Artis Logicae Plenior Institutio for
the press and by May 13 it had been published.^42 Some copies, but not all, include
an engraved portrait of Milton by William Dolle, taken from the Faithorne engrav-
ing and noting Milton’s age as 63.^43 Milton probably had at hand a virtually com-
plete manuscript of this text, derived from Ramus and Downame, and prepared
during his schoolmastering days in the 1640s.^44 But some changes date from this
later period, notably references to the heterodox doctrinal positions he had by now
worked out fully in the De Doctrina Christiana but apparently did not hold in the
1640s. The most obvious of these is the application of a logical principle, also
invoked in De Doctrina, as an oblique argument against Trinitarian doctrine: “things
which differ in number also differ in essence; and never do they differ in number if
not in essence. – Here let the Theologians awake.”^45 The italicized comment, not in
Ramus, is Milton’s effort to make the reader attend to the anti-Trinitarian implica-
tions of the principle cited, which he cannot state openly. A later instance is Milton’s
insistence that the text of John 17:3, “The Father alone is true God,” be interpreted
by the clear logical principle governing exclusives, not explained away by a ridicu-
lous quibble.^46 Another such addition occurs in the chapter on “The Efficient Cause”
where, as in De Doctrina and Paradise Lost, angels and men are identified as free
agents, since “the divine will... in the beginning gave them the power of acting
freely.”^47 Such obiter dicta suggest that the educational purposes of this work reach
beyond supplying a still useful logic textbook for students: Milton would also help
the discerning reader understand the implications for theology of generally accepted
logical principles. His preface, probably written or revised shortly before publica-
tion, underscores his intent to make manifest how orthodox theologians misuse the
rules of logic:
I have even more decidedly made up my mind not to stuff in random rules which
come from theologians rather than from logic; for theologians produce rules about
God, about divine substances, and about sacraments right out of the middle of logic as
though these rules had been provided simply for their own use, although nothing is
more foreign to logic, or indeed to reason itself, than the grounds for these rules as
formulated by them. (CPW VIII, 211)