A26976:378
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. But Earth, and Water, and Air, are partible matter. Earth is easily separable: The parts of Water more hardly, by the means of some terrene Separator: The parts of Air yet more hardly: and the Sun-beams, or substance of fire, yet harder than that (tho it's contraction and effects are very different): And Spirits either yet harder, or not at all. Some make it essential to them to be indiscerptible; and all must say, That there is nothing in the Nature of them, tending to division, or separation. And therefore tho God, who can annihilate them, can divide them into parts, if it be no Contradiction; yet it will never be, because he useth every thing according to its nature, till he cometh to miracles. Therefore their dissolution of parts is no more to be feared, than their annihilation.
2. But Earth, and Water, and Air, are partible matter. Earth is easily separable: The parts of Water more hardly, by the means of some terrene Separaror: The parts of Air yet more hardly: and the Sun-beams, or substance of fire, yet harder than that (tho it's contraction and effects are very different): And Spirits either yet harder, or not at all. Some make it essential to them to be indiscerptible; and all must say, That there is nothing in the Nature of them, tending to division, or separation. And therefore tho God, who can annihilate them, can divide them into parts, if it be no Contradiction; yet it will never be, because he useth every thing according to its nature, till he cometh to miracles. Therefore their dissilution of parts is no more to be feared, than their annihilation.
3. But if you take Souls to be partible and unible, then you must suppose every part to have still its own existence in the whole. And do you think, that this doth not more advance Souls than abase them? Yea, you seem to Deify them; while you make them all to return into God, as drops into the Sea. And if you feign God to be partible, is it not more honour and joy to be a part of God, who is joy it self, than to be a created Soul? If a thousand Candles were put out, and their light turned into one Luminary, as great as they all, every part would have its share in the enlightening of the place about it. Is it any loss to a single Soldier, to become part of a victorious Army.