A26976:276
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.
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 ⟨p. 12⟩only grow and increase their bulk, but likewise have a power of propagating their like: the third Family, I mean the Animal Kingdom, do not only live and increase their kind, but likewise are made sensitive. And lastly, we our selves that are not only possest of all the former, but of something, I know not what, we think more excellent, and call Reason, and all this from the same source; namely, that we live; which if we did not, we could not perform any of these acts. For life in us is the same as the Spring or Weight in the Watch or Clock, which ceasing, all other motion ceaseth, as in a Watch or Clock, the Spring or Weight being down.
Secondly, Because all the species both of the Mineral, Vegitable, 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 shews the hour of the day, and no more; the next shews the hour and minutes, another shews 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, Vegitables, do not