A26976:180
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
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.
Ad SECT. XXVIII.
§ 1. That Spirits are each Ens unum per se, so as to have no divided parts, or such as tend to dissolution I doubt not: that they are each one by the continued uniting Influx of that God who continueth their Being, and so far per aliud, is past doubt. You here make Metaphysical Monades absurd and ridiculous. But is not that a Monad and Atom which is one and indivisible? though it be not minimum: and if your Penetrability imply not that all the singular Spirits can contract themselves▪ into a punctum; yea, that all the Spirit of the World may be so contracted, I find it not yet sufficiently explained: For you never ⟨p. 78⟩tell us into how little parts only it may be contracted: And if you put any limits I will suppose that one Spirit hath contracted itself into the least compass possible; and then I ask, cannot another and another Spirit be in the same compass by their Penetration; If not, Spirits may have a contracted Spissitude which is not penetrable, and Spirits cannot penetrate contracted Spirits, but only dilated ones. If yea, then quaero whether all created Spirits may not be so contracted.
§ 1. THat Spirits are each Ens unum per se, so as to have no divided parts, or such as tend to dissolution I doubt not: that they are each one by the continued uniting Influx of that God who continueth their Being, and so far per aliud, is past doubt. You here make Metaphysical Monades absurd and ridiculous. But is not that a Monad and Atome which is one and indivisible? though it be not minimum: and if your Penetrability imply not that all the singular Spirits can contract themselves▪ into a punctum; yea, that all the Spirit of the World may be so contracted, I find it not yet sufficiently explained: For you never ⟨p. 78⟩tell us into how little parts only it may be contracted: And if you put any limits I will suppose that one Spirit hath contracted itself into the least compass possible; and then I ask, cannot another and another Spirit be in the same compass by their Penetration; If not, Spirits may have a contracted Spissitude which is not penetrable, and Spirits cannot penetrate contracted Spirits, but only dilated ones. If yea, then quaero whether all created Spirits may not be so contracted.