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

§ 20. As to them that say, It is the Temperament of several parts conjunct, I have elsewhere fully confuted them, and proved, 1. That it is some one part that is the Agent on the rest, which all they confess that think it to be the material spirits, or fiery part: It is not bones and flesh that understand, but a purer substance, as all acknowledge. 2. What part soever it be, it can do no more than it is Able to do: And a conjunction of many parts, of which no one hath the power of Vitality, Intellection, or Volition, formally or eminently (somewhat as excellent) can never by contemperation do those acts: For there can be no more in the effect than is in the cause; otherwise it were no effect.

The vanity of their Objections, that tell us, a Lute, a Watch, a Book, perform that by cooperation, which no one part can do, I have elsewhere manifested. 1. Many strings indeed have many motions, and so ⟨p. 12⟩have many effects on the Ear and Fantasy, which in us are sound, and harmony: But all is but a percussion of the Air by the strings, and were not that motion received by a sensitive Soul, it would be no Music or Melody; so that there is nothing done but what each part had power to do. But Intellection and Volition are not the conjunct motions of all parts of the body, receiving their form in a nobler Intellective nature, as the sound of the strings maketh melody in man: If it were so, that Receptive Nature still would be as excellent as the Effect importeth. 2. And the Watch or Clock doth but move according to the action of the spring or poise; but that it moveth in such an order as becometh to man a sign and measure of Time, this is from Man who ordereth it to that use. But there is nothing in the motion, but what the parts have their power to cause: And that it signifieth the hour of the days to us, is no Action, but an object used by a rational Soul as it can use the shadow of a Tree or House, that yet doth nothing. 3. And so a Book doth nothing at all, but is a mere objective ordination of passive signs, by which Man's active Intellect can understand what the Writer or Orderer did intend; so that here is nothing done beyond the power of the Agent, nor any thing in the effect which was not in the cause, either formally or eminently. But for a company of Atoms, of which no one hath sense or reason, to become sensitive and rational by mere conjunct motion, is an ffect beyond the power of the supposed cause.