A27004:143
The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural…
The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural evidence the being of God ... : the second part, of Christianity, proving by evidence supernatural and natural, the certain truth of the Christian belief ... / by Richard Baxter ... ; also an appendix defending the soul's immortality against the Somatists or Epicureans and other pseudo-philosophers.
London: printed by R. White for Fran. Titon, 1667
Part 1 › Chapter 4: Of Man, and other things, as produced by their first Cause.
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 if my Soul did thus independently make my Body, did all other Souls do so by their Bodies, or not? If they did not, then they had a superior Cause; if they did, then it seems that every Worm, and Fly, and Toad hath a Soul, that is an eternal, uncaused, independent being. But why then have they no knowledge, no reason, no speech? why did they not choose a more honourable dwelling? why do they all stoop to the service of man, if they are equally excellent? And then it would follow that there are as many eternal independent beings, as there are Souls or living Wights in all the world. And so instead of one true perfect God, there would be innumerable demi-gods, which all had the perfection of independencies, and none of them had a perfection of being and sufficiency: which would put us upon the further enquiries, whether they do all their business independently, or by a general council and consent, and how they all do to agree, and not fall into perpetual wars; how the soul of an idiot, or a wicked man, or of a Toad or Serpent, came to be so self-denying as to be contented with that part, when the Soul of Aristotle, and Seneca, and Paul were so much better provided for.
And if my Soul did thus independently make my Body, did all other Souls do so by their Bodies, or not? If they did not, then they had a superiour Cause; if they did, then it seems that every Worm, and Fly, and Toad hath a Soul, that is an eternal, uncaused, independent being. But why then have they no knowledge, no reason, no speech? why did they not choose a more honourable dwelling? why do they all stoop to the service of man, if they are equally excellent? And then it would follow that there are as many eternal independent beings, as there are Souls or living Wights in all the world. And so instead of one true perfect God, there would be innumerable demi-gods, which all had the perfection of independencies, and none of them had a perfection of being and sufficiency: which would put us upon the further enquiries, whether they do all their business independently, or by a general council and consent, and how they all do to agree, and not fall into perpetual wars; how the soul of an ideot, or a wicked man, or of a Toad or Serpent, came to be so self-denying as to be contented with that part, when the Soul of Aristotle, and Seneca, and Paul were so much better provided for.