A26976:344
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.
3. The Faculty and the Habit are Two things. The Faculty is the Essential form of the Substance. The Habit, or Act, is but an Accident. The Faculty is nothing ⟨p. 45⟩but the active Power. And the Power goeth before the Act. Doth acting, without Power to act, cause the Power? What need you the Power, if you can act without it? And what's a Contradiction, if this be not, to say, I do that which I cannot do, or I can do that which I have no power to do? You are not a man without the Faculty, but you are without the Act; or else you are no man in your sleep. The act then is but the Faculties act; and Habits are nothing but the Faculties promptitude to act. And this indeed is caused sometime by very strong acts, and sometime, and usually, by frequent acts; and sometime suddenly, by a special Divine Operation. No doubt, but Oratory, and all Arts and Sciences, are caused by frequent acts, and their Objects: But those acts are caused by humane Faculties, under God, the first Cause. You can never cause a Carcass, or a Parrot, or any Brute, to think of God, and the glory to come, nor to do any proper humane act.
3. The Faculty and the Habit are Two things. The Faculty is the Essential form of the Substance. The Habit, or Act, is but an Accident. The Faculty is nothing ⟨p. 45⟩but the active Power. And the Power goeth before the Act. Doth acting, without Power to act, cause the Power? What need you the Power, if you can act without it? And what's a Contradiction, if this be not, to say, I do that which I cannot do, or I can do that which I have no power to do? You are not a man without the Faculty, but you are without the Act; or else you are no man in your sleep. The act then is but the Faculties act; and Habits are nothing but the Faculties promptitude to act. And this indeed is caused sometime by very strong acts, and sometime, and usually, by frequent acts; and sometime suddenly, by a special Divine Operation. No doubt, but Oratory, and all Arts and Sciences, are caused by frequent acts, and their Objects: But those acts are caused by humane Faculties, under God, the first Cause. You can never cause a Carcass, or a Parrot, or any Bruit, to think of God, and the glory to come, nor to do any proper humane act.