Richard Baxter's dying thoughts upon Phil. I, 23 written for his own life and…

Ans. They were before they were extinct, both One and many, none but fools think that extinction annihilateth them, or any part of them: They are after, as much Substance and as much solar Fire though diffused, and as much and no more one than before, but not indeed Many as before, but Parts of one. Nature hath made the equal diffused Sun Beams to be to the Air and surface of the Earth, as the blood equally moving in the Body: And our Candles and Fires seem to be like the same blood contracted in a bile or Inflammation, which indeed is more felt than the equally diffused blood, but it is as the pain of a disease. And so when our Fires go out they are but like a healed Scattered Inflammation, & the same substance is more naturally and equally diffused. And if the Individuation of Souls were only by Corporeal matter and the Union thus as great at their departure, it would not diminish, if it did not too much increase their perfection and felicity: For there would be no diminution of any Substance, or Power, or Activity, or Perfection whatsoever.

§ 50. And this would confute their fond Opinion, who think that separated Souls sleep in nudâ potentiâ, for want of an organized body to operate in: For, no doubt but if all holy Souls were One, this World, either in Heaven or Earth, hath a common Body, enough for such a Soul to operate in. Even those Stoics that think departed Souls are One, do think that that One Soul hath a nobler operation than ours, in our narrow Bodies, and that when our Souls cease animating this Body, they have the nobler and sweeter work in part, of animating the whole World: And those that thought several Orbs had their several Souls, of which the particular wights participated, said the like of separated Souls, as animating the bodies of their Globes or Orbs. And though ⟨p. 30⟩all these men trouble their heads with their own vain imaginations, yet this much the Nature of the Matter tells us, which is considerable, that whereas the utmost fear of the Infidel, is, that Souls departed lose their Individuation or Activity, and are resolved into one common Soul, or continue in a sleepy Potentiality, for want of a Body to operate in, they do but contradict themselves, seeing it is a notorious Truth, 1. That if all holy Souls were One, no one would be a Loser by the Union, but it would be a greater Gain than we must hope for: For a part of One is as much and as noble, and as active a Substance, as if it were a separated Person: (And Annihilation, or loss of specific Powers, is not to be rationally feared.) 2. And that one Soul is now either self-subsisting without a Body, or animateth a suitable Body (as some Ancients thought the Angels Stars.) If that One Soul can act without a Body, so may Ours, whether as parts of it, or not: If that One Soul animate a suitable Body, ours were they united parts of it, would have part of that Employment; so that hereby they confute themselves.