A26976:274
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.
But of its real Being, purely spiritual, and stripped of all materiality, really distinct from its body, I doubt.
But of its real Being, purely spiritual, and stript of all materiality, really distinct from its body, I doubt.
Because that by several accidents happening to the body, the man is incapacitated from acting rationally, as before; as in those we call Idiots, there is not in some of them so much a sign of a reasonable Soul, as to distinguish them from Brutes: Whereas were the Soul such as represented, it would rather cease to act, than act at a rate below it self. Did it know its Excellencies, such as we make them, it would as soon desert its being, as degrade its self by such brutish acts: It is not any defect in its Organs could rob the Soul of its Reason, its Essential Faculty. Tho the Workman breaks his Tools, his hands do not lose their skill, but ceaseth to act, rather ⟨p. 11⟩than to do ought irregularly: so likewise would the Soul then act contrary to its own nature.
Because that by several accidents happening to the body, the man is incapacited from acting rationally, as before; as in those we call Ideots, there is not in some of them so much a sign of a reasonable Soul, as to distinguish them from Bruits: Whereas were the Soul such as represented, it would rather cease to act, than act at a rate below it self. Did it know its Excellencies, such as we make them, it would as soon desert its being, as degrade its self by such bruitish acts: It is not any defect in its Organs could rob the Soul of its Reason, its Essential Faculty. Tho the Workman breaks his Tools, his hands do not lose their skill, but ceaseth to act, rather ⟨p. 11⟩than to do ought irregularly: so likewise would the Soul then act contrary to its own nature.