A26976:313
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.
§. 12. But you would know what's meant by a spirit, whether all that is not evident to sense? Ans. It is a pure substance (saith Dr. More, penetrable and indivisible) essentially vital, perceptive and appetitive.
§. 13. You add, [How shall I know the difference between the highest degree of materials, and lowest of immaterials? To me an immaterial, and spiritual being, seems a kind of Hocus, a substantial nothing.
§. 13. You add, [How shall I know the difference between the highest degree of materials, and lowest of immaterials? To me an immaterial, and spiritual being, seems a kind of Hccus, a substantial nothing.
Ans. If you take matter for the same with substance, it is material. But not if you take matter, as it's usually taken, for corporeal; or gross, and impenetrable, and divisible substance, uncapable of essential, vital, selfmoving perception and appetite. If this seems nothing to you, God seems nothing to you, and true Nature, which is Principium motus, seems nothing to you: And all that performeth all the action which you see in the world; seems nothing to you. It's pity that you have conversed so little with God and your self, as to think both to be nothing.
Ans. If you take matter for the same with substance, it is material. But not if you take matter, as it's usually taken, for corporeal; or gross, and impenetrable, and divisible substance, uncapable of essential, vital, selfmoving perception and appetite. If this seems nothing to you, God seems nothing to you, and true Nature, which is Principium motus, seems nothing to you: And all that performeth all the action which you see in the world; seems nothing to you. It's pity that you have converst so little with God and your self, as to think both to be nothing.