Milton was writing to explain or justify God's ways to men (or something like that)... but who is Milton and what qualifies him to be explaining it? As if God's ways need justification?
Saint John of Damascus tells us the following:
"Lucifer was not made wicked in nature but was good, and made for good ends, and received from his Creator no trace whatever of evil in himself. But he did not sustain the brightness and the honor which the Creator had bestowed on him. Of his free choice, he was changed from what was in harmony to what was at variance with his nature, and became roused against God; thus, he was the first to depart from good and become evil. For evil is nothing else that absence of goodness, just as darkness also is the absence of light. For goodness is the light of the mind, and, similarly, evil is the darkness of the mind....Now along with him an innumerable host of angels, subject to him, were torn away, followed him, and shared in his fall. therefore, being of the same nature as the angels, they became wicked, turning away at their own free choice from good to evil."
Lucifer was filled with pride and boasted that he would establish his throne on the clouds of heaven and become equal to God. Esaias writes, "How has Lucifer, that rose in the morning, fall from heaven! He that sent orders to all the nations is crushed to the earth. But thou saidst in thy heart, 'I will go up to heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven; I will sit on a lofty mount, on the lofty mountains toward the north.' But no thou shalt go down to Hades, even to the foundations of the earth (Is 14:12-15)." Lucifer fell from glory as the Lord reminds us in the Gospel, "I was beholding Satan as lightning having fallen out of the heaven (Lk 10:18)." All the angels that were subject to him also rebelled against God and followed their leader Lucifer. They then assumed a black and dismal appearance instead of their previous radiance and became demons.
