Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

Secondly, II. As mans own nature witnesseth a God to him in the structure of his body, so also in the nature of his Soul. ^*We know that we have an understanding in us; a substance we cannot see, but we know it by its operations; as thinking, reasoning, willing, remembering; And as operating about things that are invisible and remote from sense: This must needs be distinct from the body, for that being but dust and Earth in its original, hath not the power of reasoning, and thinking; for then it would have that power, when the Soul were absent, as well as when it is present. Besides, if it had that power of thinking, it could think only of those things which are sensible and made up of matter, as it self is. This Soul hath a greater excellency, it can know it self, rejoice in it self, which other Creatures in this world are not capable of: The Soul is the greatest glory of this lower world, and as one saith;^* There seems to be no more difference between the Soul and an Angel, than between a Sword in the Scabbard and when it is Out of the Scabbard.

Secondly, II. As mans own nature witnesseth a God to him in the structure of his body, so also in the nature of his Soul. ^*We know that we have an understanding in us; a substance we cannot see, but we know it by its operations; as thinking, reasoning, willing, remembring; And as operating about things that are invisible and remote from sense: This must needs be distinct from the body, for that being but dust and Earth in its original, hath not the power of reasoning, and thinking; for then it would have that power, when the Soul were absent, as well as when it is present. Besides, if it had that power of thinking, it could think only of those things which are sensible and made up of matter, as it self is. This Soul hath a greater excellency, it can know it self, rejoyce in it self, which other Creatures in this world are not capable of: The Soul is the greatest glory of this lower world, and as one saith;^* There seems to be no more difference between the Soul and an Angel, than between a Sword in the Scabbard and when it is Out of the Scabbard.