A26921:106
Richard Baxter's dying thoughts upon Phil. I, 23 written for his own life and…
Richard Baxter's dying thoughts upon Phil. I, 23 written for his own life and the latter times of his corporal pains and weakness.
London: printed by Tho. Snowden for B. Simmons, 1683
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
We see in Nature (as I have elsewhere said) that if you graft many sorts of Scions (some sweet, some bitter, some Crabs) on the same Stock, they will be One Tree, and yet have diversity of fruit. If Souls be not Unible, nor Partible substances, there is no place for this doubt: If they be, they will be still what they are, notwithstanding any such Union with a common Soul. As a drop of Water in the Sea is a separable part, and still it self; and as a Crab upon the foresaid Stock or Tree. And the good or bad quality ceaseth not by any Union with others.
We see in Nature (as I have elsewhere said) that if you graff many sorts of Sciens (some sweet, some bitter, some Crabs) on the same Stock, they will be One Tree, and yet have diversity of fruit. If Souls be not Unible, nor Partible substances, there is no place for this doubt: If they be, they will be still what they are, notwithstanding any such Union with a common Soul. As a drop of Water in the Sea is a separable part, and still it self; and as a Crab upon the foresaid Stock or Tree. And the good or bad quality ceaseth not by any Union with others.
Sure we are, that all Creatures are in God, by close dependence, and yet that the good are good, and the bad are bad, and that God is Good, and hath no Evil; and that when Man is tormented or miserable, God suffereth nothing by it (as the whole Man doth when but a Tooth doth ache.) (For he would not hurt himself were he passive.) Therefore to dream of any such cessation of our Individuation by any Union with a Creature, as shall make the Good less Good, or happy, or the Bad less Bad or miserable, is a groundless folly.
Sure we are, that all Creatures are in God, by close dependance, and yet that the good are good, and the bad are bad, and that God is Good, and hath no Evil; and that when Man is tormented or miserable, God suffereth nothing by it (as the whole Man doth when but a Tooth doth ake.) (For he would not hurt himself were he passive.) Therefore to dream of any such cessation of our Individuation by any Union with a Creature, as shall make the Good less Good, or happy, or the Bad less Bad or miserable, is a groundless folly.