A26921:91
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.
§ 26. IV. And a destruction by the dissolution of the parts of the Soul, we need not fear. For, 1. Either an Intellectual Spirit is divisible and partible, or not; if not, we need not fear it; if it be, either it is a thing that Nature tendeth to, or not: But that Nature doth not tend to it, is evident. For, 1. There is naturally so strange and strong an inclination to unity, and averseness to separation in all things, that even Earth and Stones, that have no other (known) natural motion, have yet an aggregative motion in their gravitation: But if you will separate the parts from the rest, it must be by force. And Water is yet more averse from partition without force, and more inclined to union than Earth, and Air than Water, and Fire than Air; so that he that will cut a Sun-beam into pieces, and make many of one, must be an extraordinary Agent. And surely Spirits, even Intellectual Spirits, will be no less averse from partition, and inclined to keep their Unity, than Fire, or a Sun-beam is; so that naturally it is not a thing to be feared, that it should fall into pieces.
2. And he that will say, that the God of Nature will change, and overcome the Nature that he hath made, must give us good proofs of it, or it is not to be feared. And if he should do it as a punishment, we ⟨p. 16⟩must find such a punishment somewhere threatened, either in his Natural, or Supernatural Law, which we do not; and therefore need not fear it.
§ 27. 3. But if it were to be feared, that Souls were partible, and would be broken into parts, this would be no destruction of them, either as to their substance, powers, form or action, but only a breaking of one Soul into many: For being not compounded of Heterogeneal parts, but as simple Elements of Homogeneal only, as every Atom of Earth is Earth, and every drop of Water in the Sea is Water, and every particle of Air and Fire, is Air and Fire, and have all the properties of Earth, Water, Air and Fire; so would it be with every particle of an Intellectual Spirit. But who can see cause to dream of such a partition, never threatened by God?