Councils of Paradise Lost
Much of Milton’s Paradise Lost is spent trying to represent God and the Devil to the people of the 17th century as images of light and dark, or good and evil. In this vein, Milton tries to represent the two councils of God and Satan as the wise and productive council of God and the foolish and powerless council of the Devil. ... In Book II, lines 329-390 of Milton’s Paradise Lost there is a passage where Beelzebub, Satan’s second hand man speaks of the perfect plan to get back at God. ... He has to give up his Son to Death but he understands that the sacrifice is a necessary one, stating: “To save By losing thee a while, the whole race lost. ... These are two very similar passages in that they are councils of what should be done with Mankind.