Liberty, Individual
Milton upheld the liberty of the individual soul before God over outward religious authority.
Throughout his life Milton, tho profoundly religious, held aloof from the strife of sects. In belief, he belonged to the extreme Puritans, called Separatists, Independents, Congregationalists, of which our Pilgrim Fathers are the great examples; but he refused to be bound by any creed or Church discipline:
“As ever in my great Task-Master’s eye.”
In this last line of one of his sonnets is found Milton’s rejection of every form of outward religious authority in face of the supreme Puritan principle, the liberty of the individual soul before God.--WILLIAM J. LONG, “English Literature.”