A26976:49
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. Is an Atom Matter? or is it not? If one Atom be no matter, then two is none, and then there is none. If an Atom be matter, is it Discerpible or not? If not, how is this the Form of Matter? If it be divisible, it is not an Atom; that's a contradiction. And if every Atom be divisible in infinitum, it is as great, or greater than the world, and then there are as many Infinites as Atoms. That three Atoms united cannot be divided just in ⟨p. 17⟩the middle, etiam per Divinam Potentiam, is because it implieth a contradiction, viz. that an Atom is divisible; so that by you an Atom is a Spirit.
Do you take the word [Penetrable] actively, or passively, or both? If actively according to you Matter is penetrable; for it can penetrate a Spirit, that is, possess the same place. But I perceive you mean that Spirits can penetrate Bodies, & also that they can penetrate one another.
And I suppose that by Penetration you mean not that which separateth parts, of the Matter, & cometh in between these parts, but you mean possessing the same place, as is said: And if so, do you put no limitation? or what? I ask before, can all the Created Spirits in Heaven and Earth be in the same Atom of matter? If so, are they then absent from all other place? or is every Spirit ubiquitary? You confute the Nullibists by the operation of the Soul on the Body: Ibi operatur, ergo ibi est: And do you think that all the Angels in Heaven, and all Created Souls may be in one Body by Penetration? If so, Are they one Soul there, or innumerable in one man? And if they may be all in one point, and so be all one, may they not be divided again? I confess my ignorance of the Consistence of spiritual ⟨p. 18⟩Substance is so great, that I am not able to say, that God who hath given Souls quantitatem discretam, and made them innumerable, is not able to make one of two, or many, and to turn that one into two, or many again: I am not sure that it is a contradiction; especially if it be true that Sennertus, and many more say of the multiplication of Forms by Generation.