The word freedom is often associated with the idea of an unfettered liberty to select from a range of alternatives coupled with a sense that our actions will not affect our natural state. Catholic doctrine teaches that our choice is one of rational deliberation and voluntary subjugation to a higher force. This is natural law. Milton envisions the same teaching.

Unfortunately, human nature only lends itself to the assumption of certain abstract concepts such as `natural law', an assumption Milton develops in Paradise Lost. Throughout Paradise Lost, Milton expands upon the teaching that human actions affect human freedom and that this is a consequence of the assumption of the natural law that the Creator owns the created. Moreover, the created freely subordinates itself to its Creator.

Free subordination implies that a being must be free to choose between right and wrong and that it will freely chose according...