A26976:202
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 29-31: Ad SECT. XXIX, XXX, XXXI.
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.
I have told you oft enough why I say Purissima, including as much of your [Immaterial, Penetrable, Indiscerptible] and more, as is really the substantiae dispositio; and if you will call it as some do forma dispositiva, I quarrel not: But I use [Purissima] 1. to avoid many words, and 2. To avoid pretending to more distinct conceptions of spiritual consistencies than I find any idea of in my mind.
I have told you oft enough why I say Purissima, including as much of your [Immaterial, Penetrable, Indiscerpible] and more, as is really the substantiae dispositio; and if you will call it as some do forma dispositiva, I quarrel not: But I use [Purissima] 1. to avoid many words, and 2. To avoid pretending to more distinct conceptions of spiritual consistencies than I find any idea of in my mind.
I use but the Comparative degree of ⟨p. 86⟩[Purior and Virtuosior] to sensitives, not being sure that there is not a gradual difference in both consistency and virtue in these species of Spirits.
I define the Vegetative Nature, supposing it to be ipse Ignis, to be [substantia Pura, Virtu•sa, scilicet Virtute formally Activa, Illuminativa, Calefactiva; by which prime operations it causeth Vegetation, & thereby in plants, Discretionem, Attractionem, Digestionem, &c. by an Analogous perception, appetite and motion. But these actions belong to compounds; And I still profess my self in this also uncertain, whether Natura Vegetativa and Ignea be all one: or whether Ignis be Natura organica by which the three superior operate on the Passive. But I incline most to think that they are all one; when I see what a Glorious Fire the Sun is, and what operation it hath on Earth, and how unlikely it is that so glorious a substance, should not have as noble a formal Nature as a plant. And I take all the superior Virtues to be the inferior, eminenter, and the inferior to have analogy to the superior.