A26976:336
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.
Is the common light and sense of Nature no Evidence? Doth not all the world difference Virtue and Vice, moral good and evil? Is it only the difference of an Instrument in Tune, and out of Tune? Either then all called sin is good; or God, or the universal Soul, only is to be blamed. Then to call you a Knave, or a Liar, or Perjured, &c. is no more disgrace, than to say, that you are sick, or blind. Then all Laws are made only to bind God, or the Anima mundi; and all punishment is threatened to God, or this common Soul. And it is God, or the common Soul only in a body, which sorroweth, feareth, feeleth pain or pleasure.
Is the common light and sense of Nature no Evidence? Doth not all the world difference Virtue and Vice, moral good and evil? Is it only the difference of an Instrument in Tune, and out of Tune? Either then all called sin is good; or God, or the universal Soul, only is to be blamed. Then to call you a Knave, or a Lyar, or Perjured, &c. is no more disgrace, than to say, that you are sick, or blind. Then all Laws are made only to bind God, or the Amima mundi; and all punishment is threatned to God, or this common Soul. And it is God, or the common Soul only in a body, which sorroweth, feareth, feeleth pain or pleasure.
II. And if you equal the Souls of Beasts, Trees, Stones and Men, you must make them all to have an Intellectual Soul. If man had not, he could never understand. And if they have so also, frustra fit potentia quae nunquam producitur in actum. It is certain that it is not the body (Earth, Air or Water) that feeleth, much less that understandeth or willeth. If therefore all men have but one Soul, why is it not you that are in pain or joy, when any, or all others are so? Tour suffering and joys are as much theirs. You ⟨p. 43⟩hurt your self when you hurt a Malefactor. Why are you not answerable for the Crimes of every Thief, if all be one?