A26976:386
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.
And whom do they believe? Is it themselves? I doubt you have fallen into acquaintance with those whose Interest hath made it their Trade to puzzle and confound men about things as hard to themselves as others, that they may bring them to trust the Church, and then tell them that it's they that are that Church, as a necessary means to the quieting their minds. And they tell them, You are never able by reason to comprehend the mysteries of Faith; the more you search, the more you are confounded. But if ⟨p. 63⟩you believe as the Church believeth, you shall speed as the Church speedeth., But it's one thing to believe the same thing which the Church believeth; and another to believe it with the same faith, and upon the same Authority. If a man believe all the Articles of the Creed only because men tell him that they are true, it is but a human Faith, as resting only on mans Authority; but the true Members of the Church believe all the same things, because God revealeth and attesteth them; and this is a Divine Faith: And so must you.
If you love light more than darkness and deceit, distinguish, 1. Believing men for Authority. 2. Believing men for their Honesty, 3. Believing men▪ for the natural impossibility of their deceiving.
And the foundation of this difference is here: Mans Soul hath two sorts of acts, Necessary and Contingent, or mutably free.