A97353:108
The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their…
The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their principles about civil and ecclesiastical authority and obedience ... : mostly written many years past, and now published to save our lives and the kingdoms peace, from the false and bloody plotters ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Hancock, 1680
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.
8. Mans Soul is a Spirit, having essentially the Virtue, force, or inclined power, of Vital-Activity, Intellection and Volition (Three in one): all which are certainly notified by their Acts.
9. As Vital-self-moving is more noble than the motion of mere passives or inanimates, so Vitality with Understanding and Free-will, is more noble than brutish motion without Intellection or Free-will: else worms and Beasts were nobler natures than men, and should be our Covernours.
9. As Vital-self-moving is more noble than the motion of meer passives or inanimates, so Vitality with Vnderstanding and Free-will, is more noble than bruitish motion without Intellection or Free-will: else worms and Beasts were nobler natures than men, and should be our Covernours.
10. Therefore to feign God to be a mere principle of Universal motion as the Spring in a Watch, or the poise of a Clock, is to debase him below the Vitality of Beasts: and to feign him to be a mere sensitive principle of motion, is to debase him below humane nature. And to feign him to be a mere Vital-Intellectual mover without Will, Love and Voluntary Goodness, is to think of him in a maimed defective notion, as baser than man's, whose Will is one of his noblest faculties, without which he hath no Love to or complacency in himself or any other. Even as we think of a man of mere speculative knowledge, who nevertheless may be stark naught: (And so men think of the Devil himself).
10. Therefore to feign God to be a meer principle of Vniversal motion as the Spring in a Watch, or the poise of a Clock, is to debase him below the Vitality of Beasts: and to feign him to be a meer sensitive principle of motion, is to debase him below humane nature. And to feign him to be a meer Vital-Intellectual mover without Will, Love and Voluntary Goodness, is to think of him in a maimed defective notion, as baser than man's, whose Will is one of his noblest faculties, without which he hath no Love to or complacency in himself or any other. Even as we think of a man of meer speculative knowledge, who nevertheless may be stark naught: (And so men think of the Devil himself).