A26976:376
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.
§. 32. You say, page 7. Every thing returneth to its element, and loseth its individuation: Earth to Earth, Water to the Sea, the Spirit to God that gave it. What happiness then can we hope for more than deliverance from the present calamity; or what misery are we capable of, more than is common to all?
Ans. 1. Bodies lose but their Composition, and Spiritual forms. Do you think, that any Atom loseth its individuation? If it be still divisible in parts infinitas, it is infinite. And if every Atom be infinite, it is as much, or more than all the world; and so is no part of the world; and so there would be as many Worlds, or Infinites, as Atoms. It is but an aggregative motion which you mention. Birds of a Feather will flock together, and yet are Individuals still. Do you think any dust, or drop, any Atom of Earth or Water, loseth ⟨p. 57⟩any thing of it self, by its union with the rest? Is any Substance lost? Is the simple Nature changed? Is it not Earth and Water still? Is not the Haecceity, as they call it, continued? Doth not God know every dust, and every drop from the rest? Can he not separate them when he will? And if Nature in all things tend to aggregation, or union, it is then the Perfection of every thing. And why should we fear Perfection?
Ans. 1. Bodies lose but their Composition, and Spiritual forms. Do you think, that any Atome loseth its individuation? If it be still divisible in partes infinitas, it is infinite. And if every Atome be infinite, it is as much, or more than all the world; and so is no part of the world; and so there would be as many Worlds, or Infinites, as Atomes. It is but an aggregative motion which you mention. Birds of a Feather will flock together, and yet are Individuals still. Do you think any dust, or drop, any Atome of Earth or Water, loseth ⟨p. 57⟩any thing of it self, by its union with the rest? Is any Substance lost? Is the simple Nature changed? Is it not Earth and Water still? Is not the Haecceity, as they call it, continued? Doth not God know every dust, and every drop from the rest? Can he not separate them when he will? And if Nature in all things tend to aggregation, or union, it is then the Perfection of every thing. And why should we fear Perfection?