A Soliloquy of the Soul, Engraved title page – Dedication
A SOLILOQVY of the SOVLE: Or A PILLAR OF THOVGHTS. With reaſons proving ye Jmmortality of the Sovle.
by S•. Rich: Baker. R•.
W.M. ſculp.
A SOLILOQVY OF THE SOVLE: Or, A PILLAR OF THOUGHTS.
With reaſons proving the Immortality of the Soule.
Written by Sir RICHARD BAKER, Knight.
LONDON: Printed by T. Paine, for Francis Eglesfield, at the Marigold in Pauls Church-yard. 1641.
TO MY WORTHILY much Honoured Brother, Sir John Corbet of Stoke in the County of Salop, Baronet; and to his vertuous Lady.
HAving heard you take pleaſure ſomtimes to read ſome poor Writings of mine which have bin made publike to the World, I have thought good to make one Writing proper to your …; at leaſt, for which (if it be worth the thankes) the world ſhall thanke you, for being publike; For, but for your ſakes, and for teſtifying my love to you both, I had never, I thinke, had a thought of writing it. God hath bleſſed you with a numerous iſſue, as though he meant, for every one of your vertues, to beſtow upon you a childe; and if, the fuller ones Quiver is of ſuch Arrowes, … happier he is; I may juſtly, with David, pronounce you a payre, that have as few your matches in happineſse, as in vertue. When I intended to write ſomthing to the memory of your Names, becauſe I knew the ſeriouſneſſe of your diſpoſitions, and how farre you are from taking pleaſure in vaine diſcourſes; I made choyce of an Argument, of all other the moſt ſerious: for, what ſo ſerious, as the immortality of the ſoule? Of which, though wee have Divine Teſtimonies, farre more forcible then any Humane Reaſons can be; yet it gives a kinde of ſatisfaction, to ſee Divine certainties ſeconded by Humane probabilities, and Faith by Reaſon; For though Divine proofes be more proportionable to the ſtronger part of the Minde; yet naturall reaſons make a greater impreſsion in the weaker part; at leaſt, both of them running one way, and making both but one current; it cannot be denyed them, to make the beliefe, as Vis unita, the ſtronger. Accept it then, moſt Honoured Brother & ſiſter, with the like affection as I offer it, and let him at leaſt have ſome place in your reſpects, who ſo much reſpects you both; as profeſsing alwayes to continue,
Your truly loving Brother to ſerve and honour you, RICHARD BAKER.