A26976:275
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.
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.
Secondly, Because all the species both of the Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal Kingdoms, appear to me, but as the more eminent Works of a most excellent Operator, as Engines of the most accurate Engineer; they all live, and have a Principle of Life manifest in their growth and augmentation, and so far as they are living weights, as I can perceive from the same source. But then comes in those Natures and Faculties whereby each is distinguished from other, even like several pieces of Clock, or Watch-work: the one shows the hour of the day, and no more; the next shows the hour and minutes, another shows both the former, and likewise the Age of the Moon; another hath not only the three former motions, but an addition of the rise and fall of Tides; yet all this, and many more that in that way are performed, are several distinct motions, arising all from the same Cause, the Spring or Weight, the Principle of motion in them. So among living Weights, the first do only grow and augment their bulk, and have no possibility in nature to augment their kind; the next, to wit, Vegetables, do not