“I know that though their spirits were created perfectly pure in their kind and measure, yet if they were not continually supplied with inspiration from that Divine glory which gave them their beings, instead of continuing in their Angelic brightness, their spirits would become nothing else but a bottomless pit of imaginary confused darkness of aspiring wisdom above the Creator.” – from p.30, Laurence Claxton’s “A Paradisical Dialogue betwixt Faith and Reason Disputing the High Mysterious Secrets of Eternity.” Publ. 1660
Claxton’s “Dialogue betwixt Faith and Reason” tackles questions like ‘how an angel became the devil’ and ‘was this world created before the angels.’ I chose this quote from one of the chapters on angels because it sheds light onto why an angel, created pure, could become something so evil as Satan. Claxton anchors on the idea that there can be only one God, and so his creation of angels were as close to Himself as possible, yet they could not be perfectly like Him.
It is because of this flaw that they had the potential for downfall, and Lucifer did succumb to the desire for being greater than God, an impossibility. Also from this quote, we are told that his loss of the “continual supply of inspiration from Divine glory” he had no way of keeping his brightness, condemned to perfect darkness. No longer supplied with God’s love, Satan was doomed to become eternally tainted in darkness. The only thing remaining from Heaven was his desire to be supreme to God.
Another “Reason” that Claxton displays is his belief that the Earth was created because when Lucifer fell from Heaven he needed somewhere to go. Therefore, God created the Earth for his eternal destination, and that is why the Earth is so full of sin – “This world was prepared for the Devil, so this the Devil’s kingdom,” (Claxton, p.1)
Unlike most theological writers of this period, Claxton does not cite Scripture throughout his works. Rather, he separates paragraph as ‘Reason’ or ‘Faith.’ Upon further research of his spiritual life, I found that he studied many religions before selecting one that fit his beliefs. His choice was Baptist, but later joined the Ranters, which seem to be the exact opposite of the Baptists. They believed in individualism, free thought from all traditional restraints, that private ownership is wrong, and the sin only exists to those who believe it exists (otherwise, not the Ranters). These beliefs make it possible for Claxton’s personal beliefs to be considered truthful explanations.
I believe completely in this style of faith. As under the principle of accommodation, there are certain puzzles in this world that science today still cannot explain, yet the human soul craves answers. One could spend their life searching for these answers, yet without divine intervention, there is no way to know what is truly the truth. One must wait for death in order to find out what happens after death, and one must accept that there is no way to know the one correct answer to any spiritual question.
Maybe when we die, our beliefs determine what happens to our soul. Maybe our afterlife is of our own creation. Maybe we are all nothing more than the creation of someone else, and we exist only as figments of their imaginations. There is no way to tell what is true, and to try to figure this out can only ensure madness.
On an ending note, Claxton later left the Ranters to become a leader in a prestigious sect called the Muggletonians (inspiration for Harry Potter?). Taking the idea of creative belief to an extreme level, the Muggletonians believed that Heaven is approximately six miles above the Earth and the God is between five and six feet tall.
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