Paradise Lost Book 2: Line 731-734 - Explanation

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Line. 731-734: For Him who.....destroy ye both.

      When Death barred the way of Satan out of Hell and cast insulting words at him, Satan was incensed, and drawing out his weapon, would have fought with him, which would have ended both, had not Sin at that moment intervened. She asked them to consider for what purpose they were fighting. There were father and son, and if they should kill each other, it would please none better than God himself, who is looking on all this mortal combat, and rejoices at it. But they shall not fight, and they shall not overcome each other till God destroys both of them.

      Sin, the daughter and consort of Satan, has views about the justice of God, which are in perfect keeping with the character. She refuses to recognise that God can be just, but that He is the embodiment merely of wrath against them. He has mistaken His warth for justice and their fighting would only gratify Him, and none other. At the same time Sin is able to foresee that He is Almighty, and that He is the foe whom they should dread most. She feels certain that the final extinction of Death and Satan would be at God’s hands. Milton, through the words of Sin, holds out the hope to making that one day, however distant it may be, Death and Satan will be finally overcome by God.

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