A26976:31
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.
§ 4. You tell your Reader that [All created Spirits are Souls in all probability, and actuate some Matter or other.]
Sir, Philosophers freedom is usually taken easilyer than Divines; I will therefore presume that our mutual freedom shall not be in the least distasteful to either of us: And so I must tell you that I have long taken it for a matter of very great use to distinguish unknown things from known, and to bridle my understanding from presuming to enquire into unrevealed things: And I take that holdness of Philosophers to have had a great hand in corrupting Divinity. Secret things are for God, and things revealed for us and our Children, saith Moses. And when I presume most, I do but most lose my self, and misuse my understanding: nothing is good for that which it was not made ⟨p. 5⟩for: Our understandings as our Eyes are made only for things revealed. In many of your Books I take this to be an excess; And I have oft wondered at your Friend, and (sometime) mine, Mr. Glanvile, that after his Scepsis scientifica, he could talk▪ and write of doubtful things with that strange degree of confidence, and censuring of Dissenters as he did. I am accused of overdoing, and curiosity my self: But I endeavour to confine my enquiries to things revealed.
Sir, Philosophers freedom is usually taken easilyer than Divines; I will therefore presume that our mutual freedom shall not be in the least distastful to either of us: And so I must tell you that I have long taken it for a matter of very great use to distinguish unknown things from known, and to bridle my understanding from presuming to enquire into unrevealed things: And I take that holdness of Philosophers to have had a great hand in corrupting Divinity. Secret things are for God, and things revealed for us and our Children, saith Moses. And when I presume most, I do but most lose my self, and misuse my understanding: nothing is good for that which it was not made ⟨p. 5⟩for: Our understandings as our Eyes are made only for things revealed. In many of your Books I take this to be an excess; And I have oft wondred at your Friend, and (sometime) mine, Mr. Glanvile, that after his Scepsis scientifica, he could talk and write of doubtful things with that strange degree of confidence, and censuring of Dissenters as he did. I am accused of overdoing, and curiosity my self: But I endeavour to confine my enquiries to things revealed.