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

And as to the Objection, some hold that the Soul preexisted before it was in the Body; others and most that it then received its first being. If the first were true, it would be true that the Soul had its Intellectual Activity before, though the Soul itself incorporate remember it not, because it Operateth but ut forma hominis, (and its Oblivion they take to be part of its penalty:) And they that think it a radius of the Anima mundi vel systematis must think that then it did Intellectually animate hunc mundum, vel mundi partem: And to do so again, is the worst they can conjecture of it: As the rays of the Sun which heat a burning Glass, and by it set a Candle on fire, are the same rays still diffused in the Air, and illuminating, heating and moving it, and terminated on some other Body, and not annihilated or debilitated when their contracted Operation ceaseth by breaking the Glass or putting out the Candle: And as the Spirit of a Tree still animateth the Tree, when it retireth from the Leaves and lets them fall. But this being an unproved imagination of mens own Brains, we have no further use of it, than to confute themselves. But if the Soul existed not till its incorporation, what wonder if it Operate but ut forma, when it is united to the Body for that use? What wonder if its initial Operations like a spark of Fire in Tinder, or the first lighting of a Candle, be weak and scarce by us perceptible? What wonder if it operate but to the uses that the Creation did appoint it; and first as vegetative fabricate its own Body as the Makers instrument, and then feel, and then understand? And what wonder if it Operate no further than Objects are admitted? And therefore ⟨p. 140⟩what wonder if in Apoplexies, &c. such Operations are intercepted? But the departing Soul is, 1. in its Maturity. 2. No more united to this Body, and so not confined to sense and imagination in its Operations, and the admission of its Objects. 3. And it is sub ratione meriti, and as a governed subject is ordinate to its reward; which it was not capable of receiving in the Womb or in an Apoplexy. And as we have the Reasons before alleged to hold, 1. That it shall not be annihilated. 2. Nor dissolved. 3. Nor lose its essential Faculties or Powers. 4.

And as to the Objection, some hold that the Soul preexisted before it was in the Body; others and most that it then received its first being. If the first were true, it would be true that the Soul had its Intellectual Activity before, though the Soul itself incorporate remember it not, because it Operateth but ut forma hominis, (and its Oblivion they take to be part of its penalty:) And they that think it a radius of the Anima mundi vel systematis must think that then it did Intellectually animate hunc mundum, vel mundi partem: And to do so again, is the worst they can conjecture of it: As the rays of the Sun which heat a burning Glass, and by it set a Candle on fire, are the same rays still diffused in the Air, and illuminating, heating and moving it, and terminated on some other Body, and not annihilated or debilitated when their contracted Operation ceaseth by breaking the Glass or putting out the Candle: And as the Spirit of a Tree still animateth the Tree, when it retireth from the Leaves and lets them fall. But this being an unproved imagination of mens own Brains, we have no further use of it, than to confute themselves. But if the Soul existed not till its incorporation, what wonder if it Operate but ut forma, when it is united to the Body for that use? What wonder if its initial Operations like a spark of Fire in Tinder, or the first lighting of a Candle, be weak and scarce by us perceptible? What wonder if it operate but to the uses that the Creation did appoint it; and first as vegetative fabricate its own Body as the Makers instrument, and then feel, and then understand? And what wonder if it Operate no further than Objects are admitted? And therefore