A26976:35
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.
2. And do you think that the Soul carrieth a body out of the body inseparable with it, or only that it receiveth a new body when it passeth out of the old. If the latter, is there any instant of time between the dispossession of the old, and the possession of the new. If any, then the Soul is ⟨p. 8⟩sometime without a body: And how can you tell how long. If not what body is it that you can imagine so ready to receive it without any interposition? I have not been without temptations to over inquisitive thoughts about these matters: And I never had so much ado to overcome any such temptation, as that to the opinion of Averroes, that as extinguished Candles go all into one illuminated air, so separated Souls go all into one common Anima Mundi, and lose their individuation, and that Materia receptiva individuat. And then indeed your notion would be probable; for the Anima mundi mundum semper animat, and so my separated Soul should be still embodied in the world, and should have its part in the worlds animation; But both Scripture and Apparitions assure us of the individuation of Spirits, and separate Souls.
2. And do you think that the Soul carrieth a body out of the body inseparable with it, or only that it receiveth a new body when it passeth out of the old. If the latter, is there any instant of time between the dispossession of the old, and the possession of the new. If any, then the Soul is ⟨p. 8⟩sometime without a body: And how can you tell how long. If not what body is it that you can imagine so ready to receive it without any interposition? I have not been without temptations to over inquisitive thoughts about these matters: And I never had so much ado to overcome any such temptation, as that to the opinion of Averrhoes, that as extinguished Candles go all into one illuminated air, so separated Souls go all into one common Anima Mundi, and lose their individuation, and that Materia receptiva individuat. And then indeed your notion would be probable; for the Anima mundi mundum semper animat, and so my separated Soul should be still imbodyed in the world, and should have its part in the worlds animation; But both Scripture and Apparitions assure us of the individuation of Spirits, and separate Souls.