A26976:165
Of the immortality of mans soul, and the nature of it and other spirits.…
Of the immortality of mans soul, and the nature of it and other spirits. Two discourses, one in a letter to an unknown doubter, the other in a reply to Dr. Henry Moore's Animadversions on a private letter to him, which he published in his second edition of Mr. Joseph Glanvil's Sadducismus triumphatus, or, History of apparitions by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for B. Simons, 1682
OF THE NATURE OF SPIRITS: › Section 20-21: Ad SECT. XX. XXI.
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.
You Question what is this new igneous substance never heard of before] while in all Ages it hath been so famous a controversy; when not only the Stoics but most old Philosophers gave to it so much more than meet; when Lud. Le Grand, would make us believe that it was almost the only God of all the Heathen World, under various names, and while so many new Sects have written so many volumes of it, who would have believed that even Dr. Henry More had never heard of it before?
You Question what is this new igneous substance never heard of before] while in all Ages it hath been so famous a controversy; when not only the Stoicks but most old Philosophers gave to it so much more than meet; when Lud. Le Grand, would make us believe that it was almost the only God of all the Heathen World, under various names, and while so many new Sects have written so many volumes of it, who would have believed that even Dr. Henry More had never heard of it before?
To your question, Is it material or immaterial?] I still answer, material is a word of larger or narrower sense, ambiguous: I know that it hath the aforesaid Actions: And by them I know that it hath the Power so to act: and by both I know it is a substance capable of such power & Acts: And I know that the substance is invisible in se, but seen in its Effects. And my brain is too dark to be confident of more: Let him that knoweth more boast of it.
§ 3. You say [A material Fire distinct from the flame of a Candle, or Fire-stick, or red hot Iron, there is no more ground for, ⟨p. 71⟩than material Water distinct from Wells, Rivers, Seas, &c.]